Moments of Reality
by Thoughtful Constellations
Summary: As Steve Rogers is adjusting to the modern world, he is called in to protect the Earth from the Chitauri. Emma Carroll, his girlfriend, is assigned to be a part of the Medical Team on board the helicarrier. For the first time, he realizes that he needs to figure out how to balance his duty as Captain America, superhero & Steve Rogers, boyfriend. (Sequel to Healing Touch) Steve/OC
1. Homework

**Hello!**

**So if you follow my Steve Rogers/OC series, this story takes place between _Healing Touch _and _Shaped by Things to Come_. That being said, this is _The Avengers_ told from Steve and Emma's point of view since I never really wrote from theirs.**

**If this is your first time reading one of my MCU stories, and you'd like to hop on board, feel free to check out my other stories. Reading _Healing Touch _will really catch you up to speed on everything that's happening in this.**

**Alright. Let me know what you think of the first chapter! Reviews make me super happy =)**

**Enjoy! =)**

* * *

Chapter 1

"Oh, God…Steve…yes…"

"Does that feel good?"

"Yes…you can go a little harder."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't hurt me. Go harder."

"Ok…"

"Shit, that's perfect." Emma let her head fall forward as Steve's hands worked out the knots in her shoulders. "You should give up the whole Captain America job and be a masseuse."

"You're sure I'm not hurting you? Sometimes I don't know my own strength," Steve said, a smile creeping onto his face as Emma let out a happy sigh.

"No, you're perfect," she said. "Thank you so much. Today was super stressful, and this is exactly what I needed."

"You looked tense," Steve offered up.

"You are literally the perfect boyfriend. Jesus Christ." Emma leaned backwards against the couch and put her head on Steve's knee. Steve was sitting behind her on the edge of the couch as he carefully moved his hands from her shoulders to her hair, gently stroking it.

"I love you, too," Steve answered with a grin. "Should I go check on the spaghetti?"

"No, because it means you'll stop playing with my hair," Emma answered honestly. Steve's grin widened, and he slowly rose up to a standing position so as not to hurt her. She looked up at him with tired eyes and gave him one of her beautiful smiles he couldn't get enough of. "Thank you. For the massage and for making dinner and for just being you."

"Well, thank you for the hair cut," Steve said as he turned and started walking to Emma's kitchen. "My hair was in need of a trim, and you did a great job."

Emma sat on the floor while Steve went to check on the homemade Italian dinner he'd whipped up. Even though they were in her apartment, he'd made the food. They'd quickly figured out early on that Emma was not a cook, and she was more than happy to sit to the side and let Steve do the cooking since he was good at it and didn't mind doing it. She leaned her head back against the couch and looked up at the ceiling, yawning without bothering to cover her mouth as she did so. Her day at the SHIELD hospital had been long and tiring, and all she wanted to do was curl up in her bed and sleep.

Absentmindedly, she started picking at the stitches that were coming loose on the hem of her scrubs. She hadn't even changed out of them yet, she was so tired. She could hear Steve lifting the pot of pasta off the stove and pouring it into the colander she'd placed in the sink.

"Is it done?" she called.

"Just about. I'm mixing in the sauce now," Steve replied. Begrudgingly, Emma pulled herself up to her feet and tiredly dragged herself into the kitchen. Steve glanced at her, his face softening as he caught sight of her. "You didn't have to come in here. I would have brought it to you when it was ready."

"No, it's about time I got up. I need to change out of my scrubs," Emma replied as she yawned, though this time she covered her mouth as she did so. "If you want to, you can stay the night tonight. I don't mind."

Steve looked at her regretfully. "I'd love to, but I'm going to touch up on my boxing a little bit after I leave. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do."

Emma glanced at her phone for the time. "It's already 8:30. You're working out tonight?"

"Yeah," Steve replied too casually. Emma turned to give him a look. She hadn't known him for very long at all—only a few months—but she already knew that he was terrible at lying or keeping something from her.

"You still having trouble sleeping?" she asked. He paused and looked up at her with a guilty look on his face.

"Kind of," he said. "Well…it's more the fact that I've spent so much time sleeping that I…don't really want to? I don't know. It's hard to explain."

"That makes sense," she replied. "You were under for over 70 years. That's a really long time, Steve."

"I guess I'm trying to spend that time catching up on everything," he answered. "I do a lot of reading on the Internet. Figuring everything out."

"I've noticed that," Emma said. "I thought that that was what you were doing. You don't really strike me as the kind of guy who'd be up for hours every night sitting on Facebook."

"That's that social media website, right?" Steve asked with a confused wrinkle in his forehead. Emma smiled, and she nodded.

"Yeah, it is," she said. "Good job. Look at you. You're catching on quick."

"I don't really have a choice," Steve slowly replied. "I don't even know where I'd be if it weren't for your help these past few months."

"You'd be at your apartment or training all the time," Emma said. "So I'm glad that you're here with me."

Steve stopped stirring the sauce into the giant bowl of pasta, and he turned to look at her, leaning his hip into the side of the counter. "I'm glad I'm here, too."

For a few seconds, they simply stood there in silence, just looking at each other. Emma sometimes found it hard to believe that this was her boyfriend. This superhero with a killer body and a killer smile was all hers, and he was falling in love with her. It'd all been a lot to process at first. She wasn't the kind to leap into relationships and fall head over heels for a guy, but after three months of knowing Steve Rogers, she wasn't afraid to admit that she was falling in love with him very quickly. Hell, she hadn't been afraid to admit it after just a month with him.

Steve reached out and tucked a piece of blonde hair behind her ears, smiling gently at her. His palm brushed against the side of her face, and then he leaned forward and pressed his lips sweetly to hers in a soft, chaste kiss. Emma lifted her hand and set it on his ribcage to balance herself as she leaned back into him to kiss him back. Whenever she kissed him, she always felt a little dizzy and off balance in the best way possible.

Briefly, Steve pulled back for a few seconds, looked at her, and then he kissed her again, deeper this time. Emma moved her hands up to his chest, letting him wrap his arms around her waist to pull her in close to him. She loved the feel of his body right up against hers, so solid and warm and _Steve_.

"I'm pretty tempted to stay right now, though. If I'm being honest," Steve murmured against her mouth.

"You should. I'd love it if you did," Emma replied and kissed him again. Steve pulled away and rested his forehead against hers, exhaling softly.

"I'm going to take a rain check," he said regretfully. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow night you are more than welcome to stay." Emma smiled at him as her vision crossed from seeing him at such a close distance. "I could always come to your place. I'm fine with that, too."

"Either way." Steve kissed her on the forehead and then looked at the pasta. "Looks ready to me. Hungry?"

"Starving."

"Let's eat."

* * *

As Steve worked out his sleeplessness by punching the sandbag in the small gym, he wished that he'd stayed with Emma. Being by himself was usually something he enjoyed, but these days, he found that he didn't anymore. Whenever he was alone, he thought about the time period he'd come from and all the things he'd lost, and he hated that. He didn't hate 2012, but it wasn't familiar. The 1940s was familiar to him, and even though he'd been in 2012 for a good three months now, he still didn't feel completely at home in this brand new century.

That being said, the one thing that made any sense whatsoever to him was Emma. He found it peculiar that he'd find such solace in her because she wasn't anything at all like the 1940s. She was, through and through, a modern woman with modern ideas and modern slang. She didn't expect men to hold doors open for her, she liked social media, and she was constantly saying phrases that didn't exactly make sense to Steve. And yet he felt more comfortable with her than he ever had with anyone in his entire life. Except Bucky. Even so, Bucky had been his best friend, and Emma was now his girlfriend.

It was strange to say that he had a girlfriend. He'd never had one before, and the whole thought that someone actually liked him for him and not because he was Captain America was different. Emma didn't see him as a superhero; she'd been that way since the first day he'd laid eyes on her, and her attitude wasn't about to change anytime soon. He loved that about her. She saw him as Steve Rogers first.

Even with all of Emma's bright smiles and calming touch, he couldn't quite let go of all the memories that still scorched through his memory. As he punched the sandbag, he tried to forget everything that was starting to bubble up the way it always did whenever he was alone. He remembered the war, he remembered Bucky, he remembered the plane crash. He remembered being cold. Everything started flooding into his mind faster and faster, and the next thing he knew, the punching bag was across the room, exploded and leaking sand.

Breathing heavily, Steve stared at the open bag for a few seconds. It wasn't as though this were the first time he'd punched a bag across the room. Whenever he had the night to himself, this was what he did. He came down here, and he worked, and he trained, and he fought away the memories as best as he could. His heart was racing with the physical exertion and the thick emotions he was feeling. Swallowing, he turned over his shoulder and walked to the line of bags he'd set out, and he picked up the closest one. Yeah, he should have stayed at Emma's.

He lifted the bag up onto the hook and took a breath as he prepared himself for Round Two of the night. He only got in four punches before a voice caught his attention.

"Trouble sleeping?" Nick Fury. Steve stopped, and he looked up and over at the director. Why the hell had Fury tracked him down in the middle of the night? He picked his hands back up and started punching.

"Slept for 70 years, sir," he replied in a tone that was respectful but conveyed that he wanted to be left alone. "I think I've had my fill."

"Then you should be out," Fury said as he crossed farther into the room towards Steve. "Celebrating. Seeing the world with that girl of yours." Steve paused again, and he looked over at Fury with a suspicious but curious expression on his face. "Yeah, I know all about you and that pretty nurse. Word on the street is that she's good for you."

"She is," Steve shortly replied, definitely not wanting to talk about Emma to Fury. There was something weird about discussing her with the man he supposed was kind of his boss. Hell, Fury was kind of Emma's boss, too, and that was just too weird for him. Steve eyed Fury, and then he walked over to the bench where he'd left his bag, unwrapping his hands as he walked. "When I went under, the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."

"We've made some mistakes along the way," Fury admitted diplomatically. "Some very recently."

Something in Fury's tone made Steve pause again to look up at the director as he finished unwrapping his hands. As his light blue eyes looked straight at Fury, he saw that Fury was holding a manila folder in his hands. "You here with a mission, sir?"

"I am," Fury vaguely answered.

"You trying to get me back in the world?" Steve asked.

"That's Miss Carroll's job," Fury said dismissively. "I'm trying to save it."

He reached out to hand the folder to Steve. Steve didn't want to take it, but he did. Admittedly, he was curious about what was so serious that Fury had come to him in the middle of the night to talk to him. He took the open folder in his hands, and he looked down at something he'd never wanted to see again.

The first page was a long detailed summary of the Tesseract. He sat down and studied it. "HYDRA's secret weapon."

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you," Fury explained. Steve looked up at him and then back down at the file, flipping through the papers and examining the pictures that accompanied the reports. "He thought what we think. The Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."

Steve closed the file and handed it back to Fury. "Who took it from you?"

"He's called Loki. He's…not from around here," Fury replied. "There's a lot we'll have to bring up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me," Steve drily remarked as he stood up from the bench. He found that the longer he was sitting there, the more he wished that he were by himself. Briefly, he wondered how Fury had even found him in the first place, but then again, it didn't surprise him. Nick Fury was the head of a spy agency—of course he would know where to find the Super Soldier.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong," Fury said steadily and honestly. Steve hauled his bag up and over his shoulder and walked to the line of sandbags to pick up another one. "There's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment."

_Figures_, Steve thought silently to himself. He started exiting the gym without saying anything.

"Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?" Fury called after him.

"You should have left it in the ocean," Steve said bitterly, every syllable loaded with honesty. He walked out of the gym and down the street back to his apartment. On one hand, he almost didn't mind being assigned a mission. He was a soldier—he lived on orders. But on the other hand, he didn't want anything to do with the Tesseract. The Tesseract had cost him a lot of things he'd held dear to him back in his time.

God, it was weird for him to think of "his time" not being the current time. In his mind, three months ago, he'd been in the middle of a war. He'd been fighting the Red Skull and HYDRA, and suddenly, all of that was gone. He didn't have any closure to the war, to anything that had happened to him. It was literally as if the entire world as he'd known it had changed. The only thing that had stayed consistent was New York, and even that had changed drastically.

He walked back to the apartment with the punching bag on his shoulder. If he really felt too bothered to sleep, he could always hook it up to one of the rafters out on the tiny balcony his apartment had, and he could go at it there. The owner of the gym had told him that he could use anything and take anything he wanted, and at first, it'd made Steve uncomfortable. He knew that the owner was just more star struck than anything, but he'd reached the point where he sometimes took a punching bag back home with him because he just could not get any damn sleep.

Once he was inside his apartment, he pulled out his cell phone to check the time. Surprised, he saw that it was close to midnight. He'd wound up leaving Emma's apartment later than he'd originally planned, thereby meaning that he'd gotten a later start on his training. Normally, he could stay at the gym until 2 or 3 in the morning, but after that visit from Fury, he'd lost the momentum and the inspiration.

He saw the debriefing packet sitting on the table in his kitchen, and he let out a sigh. At least he'd have homework to keep him occupied for the rest of the night.

* * *

Emma walked out of her patient's room after having distributed morning meds, and she headed up to the front desk to update the files she needed to update. She was so busy thinking about all the things she needed to get done that she almost missed the familiar face approaching her.

"Good morning, Emma."

She blinked once and then twice as she registered the fact that Agent Phil Coulson was standing in front of her. "Hi! Hi, Agent Coulson. I'm sorry—I was zoning out for a second there."

"Oh, you're fine. It happens to the best of us. I was just looking for you," Agent Coulson replied pleasantly. Emma paused, remembering the last time Agent Coulson had been looking for her. She gave him a wary look, and his smile broadened as he seemed to remember what she was remembering, too. "Don't worry. I'm not asking you to go undercover again."

"Ok," she said slowly. "We can go to the Staff Lounge if you want."

"Sounds good to me. Lead the way," Agent Coulson said. Emma started walking towards the Lounge, Coulson by her side. "How have you been these past few months? I haven't seen much of you."

"I've been great. The hospital keeps me busy, but it's my favorite kind of busy," she replied. "How about you? SHIELD keeping you out of harm's way?"

"For the moment," Coulson answered with a smile. "An agent's work is often like a nurse's work: never done."

"I can agree with that," Emma said. "There's definitely never a dull moment around here, that's for sure."

"How's Captain Rogers doing?" Coulson asked in a voice that was far too casual. Emma grinned.

"He's fine. He's picking up on technology just beautifully," she said. "We've also been covering a lot of pop culture to help him along."

"That's—that's wonderful. That must be the coolest thing. Getting to work with him so personally like that. Especially since you're—you're dating him," Coulson said. He looked apologetically towards Emma. "I'm sorry. I'm kind of excited. I'm a very big Captain America fan. Always have been."

Emma laughed appreciatively as she pushed the door of the Lounge open. "No, you're fine. I was a bit of a Captain America fan when I was younger, too."

"I have trading cards," Coulson said quickly. Emma gave him an impressed look.

"I never had any trading cards," she admitted. "But I think I had a biography on him when I was in elementary school. He's always been such a big historical figure, and I like history a lot."

Coulson crossed into the Lounge behind Emma. "He's done a lot for the country. I admire that greatly about him."

"Me, too," Emma said with a soft smile. "Alright. What'd you want to talk to me about, Agent?"

"I know you've heard of the Avengers Initiative. You were present when Director Fury talked to Captain Rogers about the possibility of Captain Rogers actually joining it," Coulson said. Emma processed Coulson's words, and she nodded slowly.

"Yes," she said. "I've heard of it."

"Well, we're probably going to have to activate the Initiative. Seems that we've hit a pretty major rut that we need the Avengers for," Coulson said. "There's a mission, and we need a medical team. I want you on the medical team."

Emma lifted her light brown eyebrows in surprise. "You want me on the medical team?"

"Yes. You're one of SHIELD's most valued nurses, and it would also be a comfort to Captain Rogers to have someone he knows so personally aboard the helicarrier," Coulson replied. Emma's eyebrows shot up even higher.

"A helicarrier?" she repeated in confusion. "What's a helicarrier?"

Coulson grinned widely. "You'll see. It's great. It's like…you'll see. If you agree to be a part of the medical team."

"It's a travelling mission?" Emma asked.

Coulson nodded happily. "Yes. We're looking for someone who took something very valuable that belongs to us. You'd be travelling with us as part of the med squad."

"The med squad," Emma murmured, more to herself than to Coulson. She tilted her head to the side and surveyed him. "So this is pretty serious if the Avengers Initiative is being activated."

"You're correct," Coulson replied. She waited for him to elaborate, but he didn't.

"So it's dangerous," she said.

"You're correct again."

"Ok…" Emma paused as she thought about it.

"You'd receive full combat pay," Coulson added. Emma smiled, and she let out a small laugh.

"Well, that's always a bonus," she said. "Who else is going to be on board? Who else is part of the Avengers Initiative?"

"Captain Rogers, Dr. Bruce Banner, Agent Marks, Agent Romanoff, and Tony Stark. We're hoping to get Thor down here as well. This is a…personal mission for Thor," Coulson replied with a secretive smile. Emma took a breath, and she put both hands through her hair as she exhaled.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but ok," she said. "I'll do it."

"You will?" Coulson asked happily.

"Yeah," she said. "I've never done anything like this in my life, but…I guess I'm making some new changes in my life."

"Well, it'll be an adventure. I can promise you that," Coulson warmly answered. "It won't be easy, though. Just keep that in mind."

Uncharacteristically, Emma scoffed. "Agent Coulson, I know that by now. This is SHIELD. Nothing's ever easy with SHIELD."

"That's the spirit." Coulson beamed brightly at her. "I have to go round up a few more doctors and nurses. Thank you for agreeing to be a part of this. Also, this is top secret. Completely classified. Breathe a word to no one. Except Captain Rogers since he'll be on board the helicarrier. I'm sure he'll be very happy to hear that you're joining us."

"Got it, Agent," Emma said with a firm nod. "Thank you for inviting me."

"Here is your debriefing packet. Everything you need to know as a member of our medical team is in there. I'll see you around, Emma." Coulson smiled at her as she took the packet, and she nodded.

"Thank you," she said. "I'll look over it. See you soon."

As Agent Coulson exited the Lounge, she opened the file and let out another sigh as she saw the information staring up at her from the first page. What in the world had she gotten herself into?


	2. Superhero

**Shoutouts to Eva7673, thecruelworldwelivein, fluttershypegasus1, lilybear3121, lovefairytail007, Layla347, MarvelWorksWonders, jdho2, Jo, MsRose91, and LilyHiddleston96 for reviewing!**

**Oh, my God, 33 follows after the first chapter?! You guys are spoiling me so hard right now. That is by far the highest number of followers I've gotten on a first chapter, so wow. Y'all went above and beyond, and I am so not complaining.**

**Alright, now we're starting to get a little bit more into the movie. If you love Agent Coulson as much as I do, prepare yourself for the quinjet scene with him and Steve when he tells Steve that he watched him sleeping =)**

**Enter: Helicarrier =)**

**As always, keep leaving your thoughts and opinions. Y'all keep me going, and you make my day whenever you leave your feedback. I read everything everyone has to say, and I value every single word of it! =)**

**Enjoy! =)**

* * *

Chapter 2

Emma went straight over to Steve's apartment after work. She'd spent all day thinking about the Avengers Initiative and what she'd just agreed to. It seemed like her life was getting turned upside down more often these days, and she felt that it was probably a good thing for her. All her life she'd been the straight line, the path that never veered, the clear glass. She'd never once done anything that could be considered dangerous or risky, but now she was risking it.

As she climbed the stairs to Steve's apartment, she thought about what her acceptance of Coulson's offer would mean for them. As of right now, their relationship was amazing. When she said that he was the best boyfriend in the world, she meant it because he was. He was sweet and attentive, and he did nice things simply because he _wanted _to, not because he felt like he should. He always asked her how she was doing and how her day had gone; frequently, he was more interested in hearing about her than talking about himself, and that was a completely new experience for Emma.

She reached the top of the stairs and knocked lightly on his door. Only a few seconds passed, and then the knob turned. There on the other side was Steve Rogers, looking as handsome and stunning as he always did.

"Hi," he greeted.

"Hey. They let me off a little early today since we were a bit overstaffed. I know. Hard to believe that a hospital was overstaffed for once," she said with a sigh as Steve opened the door to let her in. She turned and waited for him to close the door before crossing over to him and walking into his open arms. "How was your day?"

"It was fine. I spent most of it researching. Getting caught up on 70 years of information is…time consuming," he said. He lowered his head and kissed her sweetly on the lips. "How was yours?"

"Tiring, as always. Learn anything interesting?" she asked. His light blue eyes tilted up towards the ceiling as he thought back to his day.

"John F. Kennedy was assassinated," he said. "I spent a lot of time reading up on that."

"Fascinating topic," Emma said genuinely. She started walking to the couch in the middle of his living room, and he followed her. As much as she liked her apartment, she kind of preferred his. His was bigger and had more space, and it was just so cozy that she couldn't help but think of him as she was in it. Steve Rogers lived with the bare minimum. He didn't have many decorations around his apartment, but there were plenty of books; ever since he'd woken up from the ice, he'd been buying up books left and right. "So I got an interesting proposition today at work."

Steve looked at her curiously, watching her turn and flop down onto his couch in such a way that Steve found himself thinking that she was adorable doing it. God, he knew he had it bad for her. He sat down next to her, lifting her legs and placing them comfortably in his lap. "Yeah? What is it?"

"Agent Coulson came to talk to me about something," she said. She saw the look on his face turn from curious to suspicious, and she quickly propped herself up on her elbows to look at him. "He's not asking me to report back to him about anything to do with you. Promise. Nothing at all like that."

"Ok," Steve said slowly, relief filling his face. "That's good then."

"Yeah, it is," Emma agreed. She stayed propped up on her elbows as she thought about the best way to say it. "Well…he came to talk to me about being part of the medical team that's going on the helicarrier with the team he's rallied up for the next Avengers Initiative mission."

Steve's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "What? You know about our mission?"

"Well, yeah," she replied. "After I agreed to be a part of the team, he gave me a debriefing packet."

"You're really coming on the mission?" Steve asked. He wasn't sure whether he felt more relieved to have her there with him onboard whatever this helicarrier thing was or if he felt more anxious at having her be so close to danger.

"Yeah. I can't believe I said yes, but…looks like I am. Agent Coulson said it'd also be good for you to have me around. Since I'm familiar to you, and you need a lot of familiar things around you right now," she said.

"He said that?" Steve questioned with a mildly disturbed look on his face.

"Well, something close to it. He didn't mean anything bad by it. He likes you a lot," she replied. "He's a very big fan of yours, Steve."

"I think it's just strange that I even have fans," Steve said. "The whole Captain America thing…"

"Aren't you used to that by now?" Emma asked curiously. Steve thought about it, and then he shrugged.

"I guess so. It was different back in…in my time. Now there are actual movies about me by actors who aren't me and television specials dedicated to me, and…I don't know. It's just…different." Steve half-wrinkled his nose a little bit as he thought some more. "Also, back in my time, I wasn't the guy back from the dead, so…"

"You're not back from the dead. You were never dead." Emma smiled at him. "Just a little frozen."

"I guess so. Only feels like I was asleep for a little while," he said, his face turning downward a little bit. "Doesn't feel like 70 years."

"Do you remember anything about it?" Emma asked. Steve was quiet for a few seconds, and then he shook his head.

"No," he said. "I just remember the plane crash, and then I remember waking up in that godawful room they put me in."

"Yeah, that was kind of shitty," Emma replied with a grimace. "Well, I'm happy that you're here and awake and with me."

"Me, too." Steve smiled back at her. Emma noticed his eyes flick down to her lips, and she felt heat start to pool in her stomach. Gesturing with her head, she held her hands out to him.

"Come here," she said.

Steve's smile widened. "Yes, ma'am."

Careful not to hurt her or put too much of his weight on her, Steve moved her legs off of his lap and moved himself so that he could move on top of her. He nestled himself between her thighs and kissed her deeply. Instantly, his body began to react to her. Nothing felt as good as her body beneath him, soft and warm and inviting. Her hands skimmed over his chest and his shoulders, moving to the back of his neck as he started to kiss his way down from her mouth to her jaw.

"That feels so good," Emma sighed quietly, and he had to fight to keep his smile from distracting him. His hips longed to push forward against her for friction, but he made a conscious effort not to. He wanted to last a while longer, but God, she felt so damn good underneath him, her back arching and her legs opening, that he wasn't sure he'd be able to keep a lid on it for very long once he got inside her.

Suddenly, his hip began to vibrate. He stilled, realizing that that was not actually his hip but was, in fact, a cell phone. "That's not me."

"That's…me?" Emma said breathlessly. Steve shifted off of her long enough for her to quickly reach into the pocket of her scrubs and pull her phone out. Her face was flushed, and her eyes were bright and unfocused. "Hello?"

"Emma, it's Agent Coulson. How are you?" Agent Coulson asked when she answered. Emma's face melted into a confused frown. Steve pulled back just enough to look at her with a curious face, and she offered up a half-shrug to indicate that she didn't know what the call was for.

"I'm fine. How are you?" she asked. "Long time, no talk."

Coulson laughed genuinely into the phone. "I know, right? Well, I was calling to ask if you would be ready in the next half hour."

Emma's large grey-green eyes widened. "The next half hour?"

"Yes. We'll have a car parked out front of our apartment building within the next half hour," Agent Coulson confirmed. Emma felt panic come over her as she realized how unprepared she was.

"Agent Coulson, I'm at Steve's apartment right now, and I don't have anything packed," she said.

"That's fine. We'll send the car to Steve's apartment then. You also don't have to pack anything. SHIELD will provide you with everything you need," Agent Coulson said reassuringly. Emma paused as she tried to convince herself that this was a good thing. If SHIELD was going to provide everything she needed, then that meant that they were going to be giving her scrubs and a toothbrush and a hairbrush and—

Emma shut her mind off before she started overthinking too much. "Um, ok, then yes. Yes, I think I should be ready in half an hour."

"Excellent. We just need you to come in a day early to get acquainted with the helicarrier and the rest of the medical team. Is Captain Rogers with you right now?" Agent Coulson asked. Emma's sea-colored eyes flicked over to Steve, and she cautiously nodded against the cool glass of her cell phone.

"Yes, sir, Captain Rogers is with me right now," she said.

"Tell him to be ready for pick up bright and early tomorrow at 8:00 in the morning. We'll have a car waiting for him outside as well," Agent Coulson said. "I look forward to seeing you on the helicarrier, Emma."

"I look forward to seeing you, too, Agent. I'll see you shortly," she said.

"Perfect. I'll see you soon, Emma."

"See you." Emma pulled the cell phone away from her face, and she looked at Steve with a stunned expression in her eyes. "Well. That was Agent Coulson, and it looks like I'm shipping out of here in half an hour. He told me to tell you to be ready at 8:00 tomorrow morning for a car to get you out front."

"So soon." Steve frowned. "This mission doesn't sound like it's going to be like any I've done before."

"Well, at least you and I are in the same boat sort of," Emma said with a sigh. She put her hand up Steve's head and ran her fingers through his hair, knocking the strands out of their perfectly styled position. Bits of blond hair tumbled into his eyes, and he smiled.

"It should be fun," he said. She lifted her light brown eyebrows at him.

"You sound like you're trying to convince me it's going to be fun," she said. "I don't even know what this mission is. All the debriefing packet told me was that I should be prepared for 'unorthodox injuries.' Possibly even life-threatening."

"Yeah. It'll be fun," Steve said unconvincingly. "You can't get the experience unless you get the danger aspect involved."

"I'm a nurse. Not a superhero. I leave the superhero antics up to you," she replied.

"You're _my _superhero," he offered. Emma laughed and pulled his head back down to hers so she could kiss him.

"Well, you're mine," she said. "Alright, Captain. Even though my body's screaming at me to pick up where we left off, I should probably get ready and look somewhat presentable for whenever the car comes to get me."

"To be continued?" Steve asked, and he kissed her one last time.

"To be continued."

* * *

The next 12 hours passed so quickly Emma barely had a chance to blink. Once the car got to the apartment, she was whisked away and driven to SHIELD's New York Headquarters where she was then taken up into a helicopter and flown out to the middle of the ocean where the helicarrier was.

The medical team seemed to be nice, even though she didn't know anyone else. There were a total of 10 doctors and 10 nurses who were supposed to take care of the Avengers if one of them became injured. Emma wasn't sure if this was a lot of people to take care of a small team, but she didn't bother asking. Everyone seemed so busy, anyway, that she got the feeling that asking a question like that would only get her snapped at.

As the Dr. Phillips, the head doctor, gave everyone else a crash course of the medical station on the helicarrier, all she could think about was how her life was constantly changing these days. Five months ago, she never would have expected to be on this thing. Hell, even three months ago when Steve had first woken up, she never would have thought she'd see something like this. She couldn't stop turning her head all about her, absorbing in as much as she could while Dr. Phillips led the way around the medical center.

So far, it seemed to be pretty straightforward. All she had to do was remember where everything was, and that would be ok. She could already tell that the environment here was a completely different environment than at the hospital in New York—at the hospital, it was constantly crazy and chaotic with everyone moving about and whispering and shouting to each other, but here…it was different. Everything was quieter and more relaxed; no one was shouting or calling out the next tools they needed.

By the time Emma got to the room she was staying in and changed into the standard-issue SHIELD pajamas they'd left for her, she was exhausted. She fell into bed and dialed Steve's phone number. Even though it was late, she knew he'd be up. Sure enough, the phone barely got to the second ring before he answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's me," Emma said.

"Hey. How's the helicarrier? I would have thought you'd be asleep by now," Steve said in a mildly amused tone.

"Yeah, I thought so, too, but I wanted to call you before I went to sleep. One, because I miss you already. Two, because I was going to ask you to bring one of your old shirts. I hate the SHIELD pajamas they gave us," she said sheepishly into the phone. Steve laughed heartily.

"Ok. I think I can do that," he said. "What's wrong with them?"

"Well…they're just kind of like…old man pajamas. Like, I can picture Agent Coulson wearing these," she said reluctantly. Steve started laughing even harder, and she couldn't help the grin that spread over her face.

"Honey, you know I'm older than Agent Coulson. By far," he said.

"Yeah, but you're _not_," Emma protested, still smiling. "You're 26, basically."

"Well…I _feel_ 26. But I'm not 26."

"You're 26. Are you all packed up and ready to come here tomorrow?" she asked.

"Yeah, I am. I'll grab an extra shirt for you. I know you said that SHIELD provides everything, but I'm not entirely sure I trust it."

"That was smart. I wish I'd thought to grab extras. Coulson said we can sleep in the same room if we want. Said it didn't really make sense for us to take up two rooms when he's under no false impressions about what we do. He didn't say it _exactly _like that, but that was the gist of it," she said.

"He knows that we're—that we—that we sleep together? As in…_sleep _together?" Steve asked, sounding horrified and shocked all at the same time. Emma chewed on the inside of her lip to keep herself from smiling.

"Steve, it's 2012. Sex is a lot more widely accepted than you think. And he didn't say he thinks we sleep together. He said he thought we would feel more comfortable since we're probably used to it, anyway," she said.

"Oh. Ok." Steve cleared his throat. "It's just Coulson, anyway."

"Exactly. Everyone around here knows everything, too. That's the thing about SHIELD agents. They just know so much all the time, and they always give you that look like they know your darkest secrets," Emma said. "They can probably hear me talking right now, and they're figuring out how to take me down. I know too much now."

"That's not funny, Emma," Steve said, but she could hear the smile in his voice.

"It's not. But don't worry. I'm not scared for my life. I can fight them off until you get here as my back up," she said seriously.

"Of course. I'll be there bright and early tomorrow as your back up," he replied, the smile still obvious in his tone. "I should probably let you go. You need sleep."

"Ok, Dad," she said, smirking. "I'm kidding. But yeah, I do need to go to sleep. They'll probably have us wake up early tomorrow. I don't even know what we're supposed to be doing, really. They're offering breakfast at 7:00, I know. If it's anything like the food in the SHIELD hospital's cafeteria, I should probably just sleep in an extra half hour."

"I look forward to seeing you," Steve said.

"I look forward to seeing you, too, Steve." She could picture him talking on the phone. He was probably sitting outside with his brand new MacBook open as he researched more things he needed to know to get caught up.

"I love you, Em," he said.

"I love you, too,"

"Good night."

"Good night." Emma hung up the phone and crawled off of the bed to turn the lights off. She hadn't realized how tired she was until she'd started talking about possibly sleeping through breakfast tomorrow. She wasn't a morning person, and she wasn't even that much of a breakfast person, so she felt like she wouldn't be missing much in opting out of breakfast. However, she knew that the smart thing to do was go grab a little something in the morning—she didn't know how long she'd be working and what time lunch would be. Or if they even got lunch at all.

The last thing she thought of before she fell asleep was what she was going to do if they didn't have lunch.

* * *

"We're about 40 minutes out from home base, sir," the pilot said, distracting Steve from his thoughts and awkward silence with Agent Coulson. This was his first time meeting Phil Coulson, though he'd heard a lot about the agent, and he wasn't entirely sure what to do. The man was nice, but he kept looking at Steve as though he couldn't believe Steve were a real human being. Truthfully, it didn't really bother the Super Soldier. Coulson had done a lot for both him and Emma, even if he hadn't met Steve until just now, and Steve appreciated that.

"So, this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the Serum they used on me?" he asked out loud as he looked up from the tech device that displayed the other Avengers' profiles. He'd already looked through them the night before—and then again and again and one more time after that—but when Coulson had asked if he wanted to look at them on the piece of technology Steve had never seen before, Steve had said yes.

"A lot of people were," Coulson replied as he crossed towards Steve. "You were the world's first superhero."

Steve hadn't thought about it like that, and to hear Coulson say it kind of put things into perspective for him. He looked back down at the breakable looking technology in his hands, and he studied Dr. Bruce Banner's face. It was hard to believe that Dr. Banner had been trying to replicate Dr. Erskine's Serum, and it had wound up turning him into a giant green thing that he never would have even though possible. Science was crazy these days, he thought to himself.

"Banner thought gamma radiation held the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula," Coulson continued.

"Didn't really go his way, did it?" Steve mused aloud.

"Not so much," Coulson drily agreed. "When he's not that thing, though, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking."

Stephen Hawking. Steve mentally ran through his memory bank to see if he remembered anyone from his time named Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking? Name didn't ring a bell. He looked up blankly at Coulson, waiting for some kind of explanation. The agent seemed to realize that Steve was lost, and he caught himself, trying to backgrack.

"He's like…a smart person," Coulson explained. Steve was again reminded of how much he was behind on things as he realized that Agent Coulson had kind of dumbed down his explanation for Steve's benefit. That was one thing he appreciated about Emma—she never tried to water down an explanation of something. She explained it calmly and patiently, and if he had any questions about her explanation, she'd go into it further.

"I gotta say…" Coulson spoke up, the tone of his voice different this time. "…it's an honor to meet you. Officially." Steve gave him a half-smile. "I've sort of met you. I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping."

_What the hell_? Steve thought to himself, unsure of how to respond to that.

"I mean—I was present while you were…unconscious…from the ice," Coulson said as he tried to cover himself again. Steve got up and crossed towards the cockpit of the quinjet he was on, and he looked out across the expanse of ocean that lay between them and the helicarrier, wherever the helicarrier was. "You know, it's really just a huge honor to have you on board this."

"I hope I'm the man for the job," Steve said seriously as Coulson came to stand beside him.

"Oh, you are," Coulson reassured. "Absolutely. Uh, we made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little…design input."

"The uniform?" Steve asked in a mixture of confusion and surprise. "Aren't the stars and stripes a little…old-fashioned?"

Coulson considered this. "With everything that's happening, and the things that are about to come to light, people might just _need_ a little old-fashioned."

Steve nodded. "And my shield's there, too?"

"Yes. Yes, we got your shield there, and it's in perfect condition. Completely ready for you to use," Coulson said. "Have you missed it?"

Despite the awkward conversation they'd just had, Steve found himself smiling slightly. "Yeah. I have. It was…it was a great part of who I was back in my time. It'll be nice to have it back again. I can't see myself fighting without it."

"Good. Well, you'll be happy to have it back with you. We already got Emma settled into the room on the helicarrier. She seemed like she liked it," Coulson offered up, trying to find common ground between the two of them. This time, however, he'd hit the jackpot. Steve's smile widened as he thought about Emma and the phone call he'd had with her the night before.

"She does like it. She's excited. Neither of us has had any kind of exposure to anything quite like this," he said. Pausing, he looked at the older agent beside him, and he frowned a little bit with concern. "How dangerous is this mission? For the medical team. Will she be in harm's way at all?"

"We'll try to keep the medical team as safe as possible at all costs, but she _is _receiving combat pay for this. Don't worry about Emma, Captain. She's a strong girl. She's proven that before with her past," Coulson said warmly. Steve listened to him, and he nodded in agreement.

"She's strong," he agreed.

"How's been dealing with the press been for you so far?" Coulson asked. "The media is very different now than how it was in the 1940s."

"That much is true," Steve said with a sigh. "I miss that a lot. The kind of anonymity you got. I don't really get that now. I feel like everyone across the nation knows my name."

"Because they do." Coulson looked at him with open, honest eyes. "You changed the world, Captain. Completely. If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have been able to defeat HYDRA. The world would be in ruins right now. People know your name because they know that you shaped the way we live now. I wasn't kidding when I said that you were the world's first superhero."

"It's just…an adjustment," Steve said finally. "It's definitely an adjustment."

"Word on the street is that you and Agent Grace Marks have continued to stay in contact," Coulson said, changing the subject. "She's the kind of person you want to have on your side. She's a good girl."

"Yeah, she's great. We have a lot in common," Steve said.

"Still haven't met Stark?" Coulson lifted his eyebrows in an amused manner, as if he had thought of something that only he knew that Steve hadn't quite figured out yet.

"No, I haven't," he said.

"Well. If he decides to accompany Marks on this one, you'll meet him. He's very similar to Howard and completely different all at the same time," Coulson replied. Steve frowned as he thought of his old friend Howard Stark. Howard had been the smartest person he'd ever known, and he'd been a damn good friend to have around. Just as Coulson had said about Grace, Howard Stark had been the kind of person you wanted to have on your side. It was crazy for him to think about his friends being dead now. Especially Howard with the way he had died.

"He was a good man," Steve said stoically.

"He was," Coulson agreed.

"So what's a helicarrier?" Steve asked as he found that it was his turn to change the subject. Coulson smiled, again looking as if he knew something that Steve didn't.

"Let's just say that we've had a lot more technological advances in the way of basically everything. Just wait and see, Captain. It's well worth the wait."

Steve had no idea what he was in for.


	3. Celebrity

**Shoutouts to LilyHiddleston96, Layla347, Jo, MsRose91, fluttershypegasus1, Eva7673, Crystal, lovefairytail007, thecruelworldwelivein, and jdho2 for reviewing!**

**Alright, so this chapter is still a bit of a filler, so that means this is all original material. We get to see a little bit more of what Emma's up to, how she's getting along with her co-workers, and how her co-workers react to seeing Steve!**

**Thank you for all the support on the story so far. It's very exciting to see that so many people are interested to know what happens to them next =) I know this chapter is also a little bit shorter than usual, but next chapter should be a little bit longer. I know it's been a few days since I updated, but I've been in the middle of my Black Widow/Hawkeye origin story, and I'm at a really great point in it, so I've been jumping on the inspiration whenever I have it! =)**

**As always, let me know what you think. Y'all keep me going.**

**Enjoy! =)**

* * *

Chapter 3

"Heeeeeey."

Emma looked up to see Agent Grace Marks standing in the doorway of the Infirmary, the SHIELD agent's typical and infamous blank expression in place as she watched Emma with those strange-colored eyes of hers. Emma smiled. "Hey. I heard I'd be seeing you around here."

"Yeah, I guess they decided they could use me along on this rodeo," Grace blithely replied. "Your big hunky boyfriend's about to land. He flew in with Agent Coulson, and if I know Coulson as well as I think I do, he's been talking Steve's ear off the entire time.

Grace crossed farther into the room as Emma let out an appreciative laugh. Over the past few months, Grace's presence had become more and more familiar as she and the Super Soldier had bonded. If Emma hadn't seen how Grace and her boyfriend Tony Stark interacted, she would have almost felt jealous over the close connection that Grace and Steve had, but she knew Steve well enough to know that he wouldn't cheat on her, and she knew Grace well enough to know that she wouldn't dare cheat on Tony.

"Yeah, every time Agent Coulson sees me he likes to ask how Steve's doing. I'm sure he's happy to finally get to meet Steve. He's a big fan, so he's said," Emma replied. A flicker of a smile passed over Grace's mouth as she nodded.

"Yeah, he is," she agreed. "He went _nuts _when he found out Captain America had been found. And interestingly enough, it was my dad who found him."

"Isn't it funny how people's lives weirdly connect like that?" Emma asked. "Think about it. Your dad was obsessed with Steve Rogers, who was good friends with Tony's dad. Your dad gave a shot, and now you're kind of like the Super Spy version of Steve, and you're dating his friend's son while also being friends with him."

"Life's weird," Grace said easily. "If you'd asked me when I was 10 what I thought my life was going to look like by the time I was this age, I would have said I was going to be a dancer. Not a trained assassin for the government."

"When you put it that way…" Emma's sentence trailed off as she smiled wryly at the SHIELD agent in front of her. "I didn't know you wanted to dance."

Grace scoffed dismissively. "Oh, I did it for years. All the way through elementary school, middle school, high school…I wanted to do it for college, but I had to choose a 'respectable' profession, according to my parents."

"I'm sorry about your dad, by the way," Emma genuinely said. Grace regarded her coolly with her amber eyes, and then she shrugged nonchalantly.

"Thanks," she said without giving anything away as to how she was feeling. "He was a bastard. It's just ironic that he died while transporting Captain America to a de-thawing facility. Spent his entire life chasing that man, and then he died right after he found him."

"Have you been in contact with your mom?" Emma asked. She knew she was pushing a little bit of a boundary with the usually very closed off agent, but Grace didn't give anything away about it bothering her; she simply shook her head.

"No," she said. Emma didn't expect her to continue speaking, and she wasn't surprised when Grace didn't elaborate on it. "You're really good for Steve, you know."

"Thanks." Emma smiled genuinely at Grace, who returned something that Emma guessed was supposed to be a smile, too.

"I mean it. He's already a different person compared to how he was when he first woke up. He's actually starting to show a sense of humor, and I think that that's coming from the time that he spends with you. He also wouldn't be this caught up on pop culture and everything else if it weren't for you," Grace replied. She tilted her head. "I think you take the stick out of his ass a little bit."

Emma threw her head back and laughed in appreciation. "Well…thank you. I'll let him know you said that. If you haven't already told him. Which I'm sure you have."

"Yeah, I told him he has a stick up his ass, and then I had to explain that it was an expression these days. I'm not sure that they said it back during his time," Grace answered with her small grin widening a little bit. "He's also really fun to mess with."

"He is," Emma agreed. "I try not to do it a lot, though. He's had a…a bit of an unorthodox life so far."

"I'll drink to that. Well. I should probably go. I'm supposed to go up and meet him on the deck with Agent Romanoff. Have you met her yet?" Grace asked. Emma shook her head.

"No. I really haven't met anyone. I've just kind of been…stuck here all day." Emma looked around the decent-sized Infirmary. "Nurses don't really get to do the action-y stuff, so I'm more than happy to leave that up to you guys."

"And I am more than happy to leave the bodily fluids to you," Grace returned with a smile. "I'll find Steve and tell him how to get here. I'm sure he can't wait to see you again."

"Ok, thank you!" Emma called after Grace. Grace turned over her shoulder to flutter a little wave before walking out of the room and leaving Emma to the rest of her day. She looked up and saw another nurse staring at her with large eyes.

"Was that Scorpion?" the nurse asked.

"Yeah, it was," Emma replied.

"You know Scorpion?" the nurse asked incredulously, her eyebrows going up in shock. Suddenly, Emma felt uncomfortable. Sometimes she forgot that Grace had a reputation around SHIELD as being one of the most renowned agents, and she suddenly felt as though she were being shoved into the public light because of who she was friends with. Truthfully, she felt as though she should have been somewhat used to this by now—after all, her boyfriend was Steve Rogers, aka Captain America.

"Yeah, I do," Emma said vaguely.

"How? She's kind of a big deal around SHIELD," the nurse said.

"Oh, she was my patient several months ago, and she's also good friends with the guy I'm kind of dating," Emma replied. The nurse gave her an impressed look.

"Well, doesn't that beat all. I'm Tara, by the way," she said back with a smile. "We haven't really gotten to do much socializing since we've been here."

"No, not really." Emma self-consciously brushed a hand over her hair and hoped that she'd brought enough bobby pins to last her for the rest of the day if any fell out. "This is…definitely very different than what I'm used to."

"Is this your first time in the field?" Tara asked curiously. Emma nodded.

"I've always been at the hospital before," she said. "Have you been out in the field before?"

"Yeah," Tara said, the look on her face changing to that of surprise. "They usually only let medical staff cleared for field-work go out into the field. If you're assigned to one of the hospitals, that typically means you're not cleared for field-work."

"I've never tried to go into the field before. I didn't really think it was my scene," Emma said, feeling herself growing more uncomfortable with each passing second under Tara's curious stare. "I was asked as a favor to come along."

"Really?" Tara asked, her curiosity not fading. "That's so cool. I've never heard of SHIELD doing that before."

"SHIELD. Unpredictable," Emma said with a shrug.

"That's true," Tara said. "SHIELD is definitely unpredictable."

"So what do you know about the mission they're going on?" Emma asked. Tara shrugged.

"Not much. Field medical staff doesn't really get informed since missions are always classified. We're just told to be on standby and generally what kind of injuries to expect. Gunshot wounds, poison, arrows…anything," she said.

"Great," Emma said as she tried to stay optimistic. But on the inside, she was wondering why she was there and why she'd said yes.

* * *

When Steve looked up and saw Steve walking through the door of the Infirmary about 10 minutes later, she couldn't contain the smile that exploded across her face. She didn't necessarily dislike Tara, but she wasn't entirely sure that she felt comfortable around the other nurse seemingly having decided to team up with Emma and be friends.

"Hi, gorgeous." Steve crossed towards her wrapped an arm around her waist as he leaned down to kiss her lightly on the mouth. Emma could feel her cheeks getting a little flushed as she felt Tara and the nurses turning to stare at her and Steve. _Oh, God, Emma. Get a grip. You're too old to be acting like this_, she mentally chastised herself as she pulled back from Steve to beam up at him.

"Hi. I missed you," she said. "Grace was just down here and said she'd send you down whenever she saw you."

"That's exactly what she did," Steve confirmed. "I went ahead and found our room, and I put my things inside. I brought a t-shirt, just like you asked for."

"Perfect. You are fantastic," Emma said. Steve leaned against the edge of the table and folded his arms as he looked down at her with soft blue eyes. "Have you met the rest of the team? Who all's here?"

"I met Agent Romanoff and Dr. Banner. They're both here, so it was nice to establish contact with them," Steve replied. "And Grace. But I already knew she was going to be here. And I already know her."

"You could've fooled me," Emma said drily. Steve's lips curved upward into another smile—God, she never got tired of seeing him smile. She thought back to Grace saying that he was already a different person compared to how he'd been several months ago back in the hospital when he'd first woken up, and Emma couldn't argue. When Steve had first woken up, he'd been understandably depressed. He'd tried to make the most of his surroundings, but he'd been in such shock that it had been hard for him to get along at first, even with her help. But now, he was a much different person. He had a more open sense of humor, he smiled a lot more frequently, and he laughed far more than he had in the beginning. Emma wasn't sure that she could say that he was _happy _per se, but she knew that he was at least happi_er_.

Suddenly, Steve's eyes drifted off to the side, and she watched him taking in the sight of the nurses and the rest of the medical team staring at them. For a second, she thought he was going to ignore them, but then he surprised her by quietly walking towards them and sticking out his hand. "Steve Rogers. Nice to meet you guys."

Emma waited as a quiet murmur of introductions went down the line before he came back to her with an odd look on his face. Gently, he put his arm around her shoulders. "Want to go on a walk? Explore the helicarrier?"

"Oh, I don't know if that's more adventure than I can handle," Emma quipped smartly, but she started walking beside him. Curiously, she glanced up at him as they passed through the doorframe of the Infirmary and out into the hall. "What was that about?"

"I didn't like how they were staring," Steve admitted honestly. He looked down at her with his clear blue eyes and gave a half-embarrassed, little shrug. "I figured I might as well break the awkwardness."

"You've never done that before. You get stares on the street all the time," Emma pointed out. Steve shrugged again, though this time he didn't quite look at her.

"Well, I didn't like the way they were looking at you, either," he said. Emma frowned in response as Steve pulled his arm away from her shoulder but intertwined his fingers with hers. They weren't all that big on PDA, but she'd grown to notice over the past few months that they were almost always touching. Even if it was something as simple as his knee touching hers or their elbows resting next to each other, almost one body part was contact with another.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"They were giving you the…the famous people look," Steve said vaguely. Emma blinked up at him with a blank expression on her face. He took a breath and rubbed his thumb against his forehead the way he always did whenever he got nervous. "That look. They were looking at you differently because I was there."

"Well, yeah. You're Captain America," Emma said, as though the answer were obvious. "Of course they're going to stare."

"But it wasn't at _me_. It was _you_," Steve stressed. He let out a sigh and shook his head. "I don't know. It's hard to explain."

"Steve, take all the time in the world. You're taking me away from anything pressing," Emma said with a small, concerned smile. "Trust me. I've been just standing in that room for the past few hours with other nurses who know each other and don't really seem to have that much of an interest in talking to me."

Steve took a reluctant breath and looked at her guiltily, pausing in the hallway. "The look…the one when people realize for the first time who you are."

"I'm a nurse," Emma said dismissively. Steve shook his head grimly.

"No. Not anymore. They weren't looking at you like that," he said slowly. "They were looking at you because to them, you're no longer a nurse. In their eyes, you're famous."

"That's…uncomfortable, I admit," Emma replied, still confused. "But why's that a bad thing? I mean, aside from them treating me differently because of it."

"Well, that's not a good thing, but I don't want them to look at you as my girlfriend. I don't want you to be known as 'Steve Rogers's girlfriend.' I want them to know you because you're you. Not because of your…relationship with me," Steve said, his voice conveying that he was clearly disturbed by the thought of it. He shook his head lamely. "I just saw the way they looked at you, and I didn't like it."

"It makes sense," Emma agreed with a shrug. "But I know I'm me. So what if they don't?"

"I just don't want them treating you any differently because of it or thinking of you any differently," he said, still frowning. "This is your job, you know? This is _your _job. I feel like…I don't know. Like this isn't really my place?"

"Steve, you've only been in 2012 for a few months. You're not supposed to feel like this is your place just yet," Emma said soothingly. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze and reached up to brush her hand over his face. Before she could lower her hand, though, he caught it in his free one and gently held it against his cheek, looking down at her with those light blue eyes of his.

"I think I'm just being a little paranoid then," he said quietly. "Because I feel like I know my place when I'm with you. Is that weird?"

"No," Emma said. Playfully, she hip-checked him lightly and grinned as she watched a smile fall over his serious face. "There you go, Captain. There's that smile of yours."

"I'm glad you're here," Steve said genuinely as he lowered his voice so that no one else could hear. "I didn't know I'd feel this much better having you around, but I guess it doesn't surprise me."

"I think Coulson knew what he was doing." Emma lightly patted Steve on the cheek and wrinkled her nose at him. "Think you're going to like your teammates?"

"I like Grace," Steve said genuinely.

"Well, I know that, silly. What about the rest of them?"

"Um, I think so. Dr. Banner's a good man. He's done a lot of really great work in the science field," Steve offered.

"So I've heard. He's made a lot of great contributions. What about Agent Romanoff? Think you'll like the infamous Black Widow?" Emma asked. Steve gave a little bit of a grimace and a shrug at the same time.

"I think she's got a little bit more on her mind than work," he said. "Her partner is somehow involved with the enemy. For lack of a better way to phrase it."

Emma frowned. "That's not good."

"We'll get him back. He's a good guy. Just…fighting a losing battle with mind control it seems."

"Oh. Mind control. That's always…fun."

"I know." Steve smirked at her and reached out to tuck a piece of hair back behind her ear. "You look worried."

"What?" Emma frowned more deeply.

"You have your worried face on. What's wrong?" Steve asked. Emma pressed her lips together, and she tilted her head to the side, her sea-colored eyes studying Steve for a few seconds in silence.

"Now that I'm here, I can't help thinking that I'm in way over my head," she said. "I was just talking with one of the nurses back there, and she said that only med staff with field-clearance. I don't have field clearance. I'm a hospital nurse, and that means I'm supposed to just stay in the hospital."

"But Coulson asked you to be a part of the team," Steve said, his face slowly melting into a frown that melted Emma's. She lifted her eyebrows and nodded in agreement.

"Exactly," she said. "The only reason I'm here is because he asked me. If he hadn't, I'd still be back at the hospital in New York because I just haven't been cleared to work out in the field. This...I've never been trained for field-work, and I just…it's different. It's all really different and overwhelming."

"You'll be fine." Steve placed one hand on the side of her face and gently kissed her forehead. "You've got this. Coulson said one of the reasons he asked you to join is because you're a good nurse, right?"

"Yeah," Emma said slowly. She sighed and shook her head. "I just don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I clearly don't fit in with the rest of the medical staff because they've all done this before. I'm the only person who hasn't."

"Well, I have faith in you. You'll be perfectly fine." Steve smiled softly at her. "So I heard Tony Stark might be here."

"Maybe. Everyone seems still kind of up in the air about it from what I've heard," Emma said. She looked hard at him. "How do you feel about that? You still haven't met him yet."

"I don't know," Steve honestly replied. "I think it's going to be weird. I mean, I knew his dad. In my head, the last time I saw his dad was three months ago. And then I wake up, and Howard's dead, and Tony's older than his dad was when I knew him. It's weird."

"I can definitely see how that'd be weird," Emma agreed. "Grace has been worried about the two of you meeting."

Steve gave her a weird, surprised look. "Really?"

"Yeah. She said she loves him to death, but she can admit his faults, and he's a huge asshole and holds some resentment towards you," Emma said. She paused as she caught the look on his face. "Her words. Not mine."

"Interesting." Steve's mouth set into a determined look. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see when he gets here. When'd Grace tell you that?"

"About a week ago when she and I got lunch together," Emma replied casually. Steve lifted his eyebrows in amusement, and he folded his arms over his chest.

"So you and Grace get lunch together now?" he asked.

"Yeah. We're friends. You and I have mutual friends," Emma said. Suddenly, she paused and stared at Steve with huge eyes. "I just realized something."

"What?" Steve asked, feeling a little nervous by the excited expression she was wearing on her face.

"I've never seen you in person in your Captain America uniform, but I'll get to see you for the first time whenever you get sent out on your first mission," she said, enjoying the stricken look on Steve's face. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought that her superhero boyfriend was looking a little flushed.

"Oh—um—it's not anything exciting or anything," Steve said vaguely. Emma caught him scratching his forehead again, and she couldn't help the smile that slid over her face.

"Oh, I think it is," she said. "I'll have to get a picture."

"That's—you won't—it's just a—a uniform. You won't want a picture of it. Trust me. It's nothing exciting. At all, really," Steve said nervously. Emma stood up on her tiptoes, and she briefly kissed the Super Soldier with a quick kiss that melted Steve's heart.

"Oh, I'll want a picture of it."

"Probably not."

"Definitely yes. It's a necessity."

"Not sure I'd say necessity."

"I'll need a picture before the mission's over. That's an order, Captain."

"Well, if it's an order…"

"Yes, sir."

And because he didn't have a rebuttal, he accepted his defeat, and he kissed her.


	4. Stuttgart

**Shoutouts to Guest, jdho2, LilyHiddleston96, Layla347, lovefairytail007, Eva7673, Ladyofasgard, Jo, thecruelworldwelivein, and MsRose91 for reviewing!**

**Alright, we're back to the movie action. In this chapter, we get more of Fangirl Coulson, and we get to see Tony Stark and Steve interact for the first time. We also get to see how Emma's getting along with the rest of her co-workers after her little conversation with Steve =) If you've read _Acting on Instinct_, the dialogue that's in there between Tony and Grace in those scenes in here, as well, so you'll notice some similarities!**

**As always, let me know what you think. I love hearing back from you guys, and it always makes my day!**

**Enjoy! =)**

* * *

Chapter 4

"I feel like we're slacking. Are we slacking?" Emma glanced around the hall with mild amusement on her face. "We've been walking around the helicarrier for God knows how long, and I feel like everyone's looking busy and worried and important."

"If they need us, they'll say something," Steve said. He paused. "I hope."

"Hey, there's Coulson," Emma said, nodding towards the older agent. "How was the ride in with him?"

"He's very nice. Just like you said he was," Steve replied. "He seems like a good man."

"He is. He's one of my favorite agents here. Agent Coulson!" she called out. Coulson turned over his shoulder, a pleasant smile lighting up his face when he saw both the blonde nurse and the Super Soldier.

"Emma! Captain Rogers. How are the two of you liking the helicarrier so far?" he asked. Emma's sea-colored eyes glanced up and around the ceiling, and she let out a quiet laugh of disbelief.

"Still trying to…understand it," she said. "We've been walking around. Think we got lost several times, but that's ok."

"Are you liking the rest of the medical staff?" Coulson asked. Emma thought about how to answer that. She didn't _dis_like the rest of the medical staff per se, but she wasn't a huge fan of them. She thought back to earlier that day when Steve had mentioned that look that they'd been giving her, and she offered up an ambiguous shrug and nod.

"Yeah, they seem nice," she said. "I think they've been in the field before, though, and this is my first time."

"If they've been assigned to this mission, then yes. They're field staff," Coulson replied. He caught the confused look on her face. "Don't give me that look, Emma. I thought you were qualified enough and good enough to come on board."

"Best nurse in the world," Steve added. Emma brought a hand up to her face and hid her smile.

"Oh, God, you guys are making me blush," she said. Steve laughed and gently rubbed the space between her shoulder blades. Suddenly, she had a thought pop into her head. "Hey, Agent Coulson, you said something about…about trading cards, right?"

"Oh, yeah!" Agent Coulson exclaimed. He looked over at Steve with a look that could be described as shy, and he offered up a tiny smile. "I…I have these trading cards…_Captain America _trading cards that I've been collecting for a while, and—and I was just—wondering if you would sign them."

"Oh. Oh, sure, of course," Steve replied, his face calm and level, even though Emma knew he was dying inside of embarrassment. Coulson glanced back out over the rest of the agents around him to make sure that everyone was still working and doing what they were supposed to be doing before he glanced back at Steve.

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble," he added self-consciously.

"No, no, it's fine," Steve insisted. He folded his arms over his chest and looked out over the rest of the agents, too, wondering what on Earth they were all doing. There were so many agents and so many computers that it just baffled him. They all seemed to be looking for Loki, but it just seemed like a lot of agents.

"It's a vintage set," Coulson said with another quick glance in Steve's direction. Emma had to suppress her smile. "It took me a couple of years to collect them all." He paused. "Near mint. Slight foxing around the edges, but…"

"We got a hit!" one of the agents called out. Emma looked over towards the agent and tried to remember his name. She knew she'd seen him at the SHIELD hospital before. If she remembered correctly, he was Agent Sitwell. She couldn't remember his first name, but she thought she was doing pretty good to remember his last name. "A 67% match. Wait. Cross match, 79%."

Emma watched Coulson cross over towards Agent Sitwell and look over his shoulder to examine the readings.

"Location?" Coulson asked.

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding," Agent Sitwell replied. Emma looked at the screen beside Sitwell and saw an agent running face traces for someone who appeared to be a member of SHIELD. And if Emma looked closely, she could have sworn that the image was that of Clint Barton, Hawkeye. Frowning, she studied it from afar. She'd heard some rumors that something had happened to Hawkeye, but surely he wasn't a bad guy. Why would SHIELD be after him? She'd never met him in person, but she knew that he was just as much of a legend at the organization as Grace Marks and Natasha Romanoff were.

"Is that Hawkeye? Did something happen to him?" she asked Steve quietly. She watched his face become guarded. "Is that classified? Because if you can't tell me, that's ok."

"Do you know him?" Steve asked. She shook her head, her eyes trailing back to the picture.

"No," she said. "I've just heard a lot about him."

"Captain," Nick Fury's voice caught both her and Steve's attention. They both turned over their shoulder to find the director standing there. As usual, Emma felt like she should shrink back beneath the man's gaze. "You're up."

Taking a breath, Steve gave him a quick nod, and then he looked down at Emma. "Duty calls."

"Be safe," she murmured back to him, making a conscious effort not to reach out and touch him. He paused as if he were going to make some kind of move to hug her or smooth his hand over her head, but then he turned and walked off, leaving Emma alone with the rest of the SHIELD agents. Uncomfortably, Emma tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and thought about the best way that she could leave the area without looking like she was being rude.

She didn't really feel comfortable around SHIELD agents. It wasn't that she didn't trust them—though really, considering all the secrets that these agents had at all hours of the day, she didn't—or she thought they'd hurt her. She just knew that they thought less of her and didn't quite see nurses or the medical staff on the same level as they saw each other. And on some level, she couldn't blame them. These were people who could take down five heavily armed men with just a knife, and that was enough for Emma to be impressed.

"Miss Carroll," Nick Fury said, distracting her from her thoughts. Stunned, she looked up at the perch that the director had placed himself on. He gestured with his head for her to come there, so she carefully walked up the small set of stairs and around the railing to meet him.

"Director Fury," she greeted.

"What do you know about aliens, Miss Carroll?" Director Fury asked, eyeing her curiously. Emma paused, wondering if she'd heard that right. When it appeared that Fury was genuinely waiting for an answer, she scrambled to find something to say.

"Um, well…I don't know," she said. "To my knowledge, I've never met one before."

"Does it seem outrageous to you that there's life on other planets?" Fury asked. Emma took a second to think about it, and then she shook her head.

"No, sir," she said. "I think it makes sense. Science says that space is unlimited. That the universe goes on and on and on, and the numbers of planets that exist out there is limitless. It seems outrageous to think that out of all the infinite planets, ours would be the only one with life on it."

Fury's face was unreadable, but he nodded. "You're smart, Miss Carroll."

"Thank you, sir," she replied, still unsure of why he was talking to her.

"I'll see you around. Try to stay out of trouble," the director said mildly as he turned over his shoulder, and then he was gone. Emma took a breath and sighed quietly to herself. _Ok, Emma_, she told herself silently, _it looks like things are just going to keep getting more confusing, but that's ok, right? That's ok._

* * *

Steve wasn't sure what to make of his new uniform. Agent Coulson had said he'd had some input in the design of it, and Steve took a moment to wonder just exactly how much input the older agent had had. It was different from his old uniform, that's for sure. And it wasn't exactly a _bad _different. It was just different. This one felt, well, modern for lack of a better word. It was also brighter and more noticeable, but it was still patriotic.

"We're just waiting on Agent Romanoff, and then we'll be able to head out," Grace remarked from her seat up by the control panel of the quinjet.

"Sounds good to me," Steve answered. "I didn't know you could fly one of these things."

Grace grinned impishly and gave a small shrug. "It's part of my unique and specific skill set."

"So. Aliens. From outer space," Steve said dully. "How about that?"

"It makes sense that there'd be life on other planets. Just sucks that this fuckhead had to come to _our _planet," Grace answered with a brief roll of her strange amber eyes. "Is that weird to know that aliens are real?"

"Well, considering the fact that just three months ago, I was fighting World War II in Germany…" Steve's voice trailed off as he smirked back at the agent. She grinned appreciatively.

"Touche," she said. Suddenly, she paused, and she exhaled slowly through her nose. "Just as a heads up, it's probably best not to say anything about Barton around Natasha."

Steve frowned, confused. "Personal history?"

Grace grinned with a smile that let him know she definitely knew something he didn't know. "Loads of it. Barton and Romanoff love each other the way the stars love the night sky."

"That was…strangely poetic," Steve said.

"Another part of my unique and specific skill set," Grace said dismissively. "But it's a bit of an understatement to say that she's worried out of her mind about Barton. He's a good guy. They're both good. It's just kind of best to not talk about it right now."

"I'll keep that in mind," Steve said. "Agent Coulson asked me to sign those cards, by the way."

Grace's face lit up, and she punched a fist into the air in triumpth. "Yes! I totally knew he was going to ask you! That makes me so happy. You have no idea."

"Technically, Emma was the one who brought it up," Steve added. Grace started laughing even harder.

"If I didn't like her before, I _love _her now," she said.

"Welcome to the club," Steve quipped. At that moment, Natasha Romanoff stalked on board the quinjet. When she caught sight of Steve in his uniform, she smirked in his direction.

"I like the uniform, Cap," she said.

"Thanks," he replied with a quick glance down towards it.

"I mean it. It's colorful. It looks nice," she said. Grace turned over her shoulder as Natasha took her seat at the controls.

"Ready, Steve?" she called over her shoulder.

"Yes, I am," Steve replied. He watched the two women mumble back and forth to each other about the controls and the different levers they were supposed to pull and buttons and all that other stuff that was going over his head at the moment. He knew that if he had a chance to really sit down at the controls and listen to them talk, he'd be able to figure out the modern equipment, but he was more than happy to sit back and let the females take care of it for now.

The quinjet lifted into the air and sped out towards the location. Steve kept careful watch of the time, and it wasn't long until they were there. Grace looked back over her shoulder and shot another grin towards him. "Lookin' good, Steve! Want me to snap a picture and send it to Em? I'm sure she'd love to have this on her phone."

Steve remembered Emma saying that she wanted to get a picture of him before the mission was over, and he quickly shook his head, though he was smiling as he did it. "That's ok! She doesn't need a picture on her phone."

"Oh, ten bucks says she'll want one when she sees you in it," Grace replied.

"I've already lost 10 bucks today. I don't think I can afford to lose another," he answered in a wry tone, thinking back to the bet he'd lost with Fury. He was a man of his word, and he'd paid up the $10 he'd owed the man. God, money was so different now, he thought to himself. Ten dollars back in the 1940s was a fortune, and now, it was just something you easily bet with without a second thought.

Grace turned back around to the front and started talking with Natasha. Steve stood up in the back and prepared himself. It was only a matter of time before he'd have to drop down into the war zone. Inside, he was somewhat nervous. He didn't particularly doubt himself these days when it came to physical exertion or fighting, but this was different. He was going to be fighting an alien who was basically a god, and he didn't know what was in store for him. Even though he'd read up on everything he'd been assigned to read, he just didn't feel as though he were sufficiently prepared for this mission.

But he was Captain America, and he wasn't going to allow that to stop him. He didn't back down from fights. He never had. And he wasn't about to start now just because he'd been assigned to fight some damn alien who knew magic. How was magic even real now? To Steve, magic was just a bunch of those stupid card tricks he'd done as a kid with Bucky.

"Steve, prepare to drop!" Grace called from up front, pressing the button to lower the cargo ramp in the back for him..

"Oh, shit, looks like some guy's talking to him," Natasha murmured from beside the amber-eyed agent.

"Steve, you might want to drop now. Like, _now_!" Grace called.

"Roger that," Steve replied, and then he'd leapt out the back. The quinjet was low enough that he didn't need a parachute, and he was soaring towards the ground. He landed lightly, his shield in hand, and he started walking towards the crowd. He could see Loki standing there with what was the worst helmet he'd ever seen in his life, and sure enough, the alien was talking to an older man. Suddenly, Loki lifted up a scepter with a look on his face that let Steve know he was about to destroy the old man, and Steve moved into action.

He leapt forward, shield lifted, and he landed right in front of the man just in time. The blast of Loki's scepter hit off his shield and bounced back, knocking himself onto the ground. Steve stood tall, unwilling to look nervous or self-conscious in front of this bastard.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing," he said as he crossed towards Loki. He'd never been one to say corny superhero lines, but that one he hadn't been able to help. Loki gazed at him with startlingly blue eyes, his expression curious and somewhat amused as he took in the sight of Steve.

"The soldier," he breathed and let out a quiet laugh as he stood back up. "The man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time," Steve quipped. Well, it looked like he was full of more than one corny superhero line, he thought to himself. Behind him, the quinjet was moving into place, and he sent up a silent thank you to Grace and Natasha for being right on time with their back up.

"Loki, drop the weapon, and stand down," Natasha's voice came out over the loudspeakers. Loki glanced up at the quinjet, and then he lifted his scepter and shot out a blast of blue light towards it. Steve took that as his cue, and he hurled his shield. The fight had begun.

Back and forth, the alien god and the Super Soldier went. Loki didn't go down easily, Steve noticed when he punched the man across the face. Steve's enhanced punch normally would have knocked a person off his feet, but Loki's head simply turned with the momentum from Steve's fist.

_So this is going to be a little bit more difficult_, Steve thought, but that didn't bother him. He'd always loved a challenge. They fought and punched and kicked and swung, and eventually, Steve found himself without his shield and on his knees. Panting, he heard Loki cross towards him and touch him on the helmet with the end of his scepter.

"Kneel," the alien growled.

"Not today," Steve snapped as he knocked away the scepter and pulled himself up into a roundhouse kick. And as Loki managed to knock him onto the ground again in retaliation, the worst music he'd ever heard began to play. Actually, it wasn't music. It was just kind of screeching, but he could make out the sound of maybe drums? Suddenly, Loki was knocked backwards as a metal man landed onto the brick beside Steve and began to advance on Loki.

Tony Stark. Steve didn't need any introductions—he would have known Tony Stark even without anyone telling him. He'd talked to Grace enough and seen enough footage to know that the metal man beside him was Iron Man and inside was the genius who'd created him. Unexpectedly, he felt a pang in his chest as he thought about Howard Stark. This was Howard's son. Howard had had a son.

"Make your move, reindeer games," Tony quipped as he readied all of his weaponry in case Loki tried anything. Steve walked up to the side of the billionaire and glowered at Loki as he caught his breath. Loki's clothes instantly morphed into regular clothes, and he slowly held his hands up.

_So that's what they meant about magic_, Steve thought as he kept his face calm and without reaction. Beside him, Stark lowered his weapons.

"Good move," he said.

"Mr. Stark," Steve cautiously and breathlessly greeted, refusing to take his eyes away from Loki.

"Captain," Stark replied. His attention turned back to Loki. "Alright. Let's get you on board the Fun Plane. How does that sound?"

Loki didn't say anything; instead, he just let Stark and Steve lead him up the ramp of the quinjet after it had landed. He still stayed silent even as Stark slapped on a good pair of handcuffs.

"Look, you even get some fun accessories for your ride on the Fun Plane. Isn't that cool?" Stark said blandly. He lifted his helmet up and over his head, barely glancing at Steve as he did so. Steve kept a cautious eye on Loki as he removed his own helmet, even though Loki didn't seem to be giving him the time of day. He watched Stark look over at Grace. "Agent Marks."

"Anthony," Grace replied easily.

"Careful, Agent. My full name isn't to be used lightly."

"Who said I was using it lightly? Come here and kiss me, asshole." Grace smirked at the genius. God, Steve had only been around Tony Stark for less than five minutes, and he was annoyed by him. He liked Grace alright, but Tony Stark was kind of insufferable, and he couldn't understand what Grace saw in him. And yet, Steve could see so much of Howard in the guy that it was astonishing.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Stark moved in and kissed her on the mouth before pulling back and winking at her. "We'll catch up. Fly the aircraft. The redheaded traitor is glaring at me. Hi, Agent Romanoff!" Natasha didn't say anything back, and Stark turned back to Grace. "She's improving her deadpan. Must be spending too much time around you."

"Hush. Go watch Loki. I have to fly this thing," Grace said irritably, even though she didn't look particularly irritated at all. Stark crossed towards the back and narrowed his dark brown eyes at Loki. Loki ignored him, still keeping his gaze elsewhere. Steve stood up and crossed towards the control panels of the quinjet so that he could be up with everyone else. Glancing over at Stark, he decided to try some conversation.

"I don't like it," he murmured quietly. Stark turned his cool gaze on the Super Soldier, scrutinizing him and making an assessment.

"What, Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Tony asked. Steve didn't understand the reference, but he didn't bring it up.

"I don't remember it being that easy," he admitted. "This guy packs a wallop."

"Still, you _are _pretty spry…for an older fellow," Stark blithely replied. He paused, waiting for a reaction as Steve turned to glare suspiciously at him. "What's your thing—pilates?"

Steve paused, feeling completely lost and irritated. "What?"

"It's like calisthenics," Stark replied in a bored tone. "You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

His gaze was challenging, and that was the moment that Steve decided he really did not like Tony Stark at all. He could tell that Stark was trying to figure out how far he could push the Super Soldier, and Steve really hated people who did that. He didn't like talking about his time in the ice to begin with; that being said, there was no way he'd discuss it with someone like Tony Stark.

He looked at Tony and tried not to see his old friend in the man's face, but he was unable to do so. It was strange to look at Tony and realize that physically, Tony looked older than hew as. As far as everyone was concerned, Steve looked like a 26 year old young man in the prime of his life while Tony was in his early 40s. And yet, on paper, Steve was in his 90s. It was the biggest mindfuck of Steve's life, and he wasn't afraid to admit that it made him a little more annoyed and a little more uncomfortable.

"Hey, Tony, is everything ok back there?" Grace called out, her voice casual, but Steve had an idea that she was doing it as a warning to Tony to back off.

"Yep, everything's perfect," Stark remarked.

_No, _Steve thought, his blue eyes sliding over towards Loki. _No, everything's not_.

* * *

When Emma walked through the door back into the Infirmary, Tara paused as she looked up from her cell phone.

"You didn't tell me your boyfriend is Captain America," she said lightly. "I'd heard that he was dating someone, but I didn't know it was _you_."

"Oh, I don't really advertise it," Emma said, trying not to show how uncomfortable she felt. She noticed some of the other nurses looking over at her, and she looked away as she saw them starting to join both her and Tara.

"We had no idea we had SHIELD royalty on the helicarrier," another nurse said in a playful voice. Emma hated it, but she forced herself to smile and shrug.

"I'm—I'm not SHIELD royalty," she said. "That's like, Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton."

"Did you ask to be transferred here so you could be with Captain Rogers?" Tara curiously asked. Emma felt a flash of anger deep down in her solar plexus, and she swallowed to keep it down.

"No," she said slowly. "I would never ask for a transfer just so I could be with my boyfriend. That's unprofessional."

"Hell, I could be unprofessional if my boyfriend were Steve Rogers," another nurse remarked. Emma tried to keep her face calm and pleasant, even though she felt everything but. Now she understood what Steve had been referring to earlier when he'd said that he hadn't wanted anyone treating her differently. She understood all too well.

"I take my job seriously," Emma said in an attempt to sound lighthearted. "I was asked to come on board by Agent Coulson."

"That's so cool," the nurse replied. Emma's eyes darted down to the nurse's name tag and saw that her name was Evelyn. "Well, welcome on board. Field work can be pretty fun, but it can also be pretty slow and boring like right now."

"The doctors always do their own thing, and we always do ours," another nurse named Isabel added.

"How many missions have you guys worked together?" Emma asked curiously. Isabel shrugged and tilted her head to the side as she thought.

"I don't know. This is probably our fifth. We all know each other pretty well, I'd say. When you get to be in some life or death situations, you'll find that the people you're with often become your best friends," she remarked.

"So," Evelyn spoke up with a grin, "welcome to the family."

But as Emma looked around at all of these smiling faces, she couldn't help thinking that she didn't want to be a part of a family that only wanted her in it because of who she was dating. Ever the professional, however, she lifted her head, and she smiled, taking it all in stride. That was what she did. That was what she always did.


	5. Asgardian

**Shoutouts to Eva7673, fluttershypegasus1, LilyHiddleston96, MsRose91, Jo, and Bellarose95 for reviewing!**

**Sorry, guys. This chapter's pretty boring if you've already read _Acting on Instinct_, and it's shorter than I usually write...but if you _haven't _read _Acting on Instinct_, this will be brand new for you, so yay!**

**Keep letting me know what you think! Reviews keep me motivated to update quickly, so ;)**

**Enjoy! =)**

* * *

Chapter 5

Steve was surrounded by five year olds. He watched in furious dismay as Grace and Thor started fighting, Grace sweeping Thor's legs out from underneath him and then climbing on his back. Frustration flashed over his whole body. How the hell had he ended up here? Oh, that's right, he thought wryly to himself—Thor had shown up and taken Loki, Stark had gone speeding out after the two aliens, and then he and Grace had parachuted their way down to break up the fight like the normal people they were.

This was not what he had signed on for.

"This is enough!" he shouted, his frustration bubbling over. However, neither Grace nor Thor appeared to be listening. Thor managed to get up into a standing position with what looked like a hammer in his hand, and Grace lunged at the tall, blond god, wrapping her legs around his neck and flipping him over and onto the ground.

"See what happens when you touch my stuff?" Stark said in a snarky voice. Steve had had enough.

"Enough! Both of you!" he shouted. Suddenly, Grace and Thor looked up at him with facial expressions akin to those of children being punished for acting up. Well, if they were going to act like children, he was going to damn well treat them like children, Steve though angrily to himself. His blue eyes darted over to Thor. "Now I don't know what you plan on doing here."

Thor glared fiercely back at the Super Soldier, his chest heaving as he caught his breath. "I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes!"

"Then prove it," Steve calmly challenged. "Put that hammer down."

"Uh, yeah, no," Stark said suddenly. "Bad call. He loves his hammer—"

He was interrupted by Thor back-handing him with the very hammer in question. Thor continued to stare at Steve without looking away, and that was when Steve realized that Thor was planning on fighting him. If Steve were the kind of man who used four letter words starting with "f," he would have used it right then.

"You want me to put the hammer down?" Thor cried. And then next thing Steve knew, Thor was flying through the air with his hammer lifted. So of course, out of instinct, Steve ducked down and hid behind his shield. He felt the impact of the hammer before he actually heard it, just as he felt the blast that came away from their collision before he actually heard that as well. He made sure to hold up strong, keeping his arms lifted high above his head in support.

Suddenly, there was silence. Steve lowered the shield and took in the sight of the aftermath. Stark, Grace, and Thor were all on their backs with stunned expressions on their faces. Steve was too furious to be amused or to feel triumphant. He just stared calmly at them.

"Are we done here?" he asked, though it was clear by the tone of his voice that he was _telling _them they were, indeed, done. He saw Thor's eyes sweeping around, as if he were waiting for someone else to step forward and continue the fight. Silence passed for a few seconds, but then Stark broke it.

"Uh, yeah, I'll take that as a unanimous yes, we're all done," the billionaire said smartly. His dark brown eyes darted over to Grace. "You ok, Agent?" Grace didn't verbally reply, but she nodded. Stark walked over to her and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Well, I'll meet you guys back at the helicarrier."

And with that, he was gone.

Steve was left with just Thor, and he was only half-convinced that Thor was done fighting. The two men regarded each other for a few silent seconds, testing out how the other was going to react.

"We must secure my brother," Thor said finally. Steve shortly nodded, and he waited for Thor to move. The Asgardian glanced at Steve, and then he started to walk. "You are a fine warrior."

"Thank you. So are you," Steve replied.

"Midgard possesses some of the best warriors I've seen," Thor continued. Steve tried to think of what the hell Midgard was; if he remembered correctly from his files, Midgard was the name that the Asgardians—like Thor—called Earth. "That shield of yours is a fine weapon. I have never known any weapon to withstand the blow of Mjolnir."

Mjolnir. That must be Thor's hammer.

"It's a good tool to have," Steve replied. Thor stopped walking, and he turned towards Steve.

"I am Thor, son of Odin, and I am honored to have met you," he said. Steve held out his hand.

"Steve Rogers. Likewise," he said. Thor eyed his hand, but then he placed his own in it and shook it. Steve wondered how many handshakes the guy had experienced in his life, but he didn't ask. He knew what it was like to receive questions about things he didn't understand, and he didn't want to impose the same feelings of discomfort on the Asgardian, even though he got the feeling that Thor never really felt uncomfortable.

"Your night sky is beautiful here," Thor said as he walked along through the trees towards the ridge of rock directly above them. "I am well acquainted with a maiden here who studies the stars."

"The stars are pretty," Steve agreed. "Can't see those in the city."

"No," Thor said in quiet agreement, his mouth in a small smile as he looked up appreciatively at the sky again. "No, you can't."

Instantly, Steve felt as though he'd misjudged the Asgardian. Thor clearly seemed to be over whatever anger he'd felt earlier towards him, and for God's sake, he was practically mooning over how beautiful the stars looked. Steve took in a quiet breath, and he slowly exhaled. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

When Emma walked out of the shower with her towel wrapped around her, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw Steve lying on the bed. She jumped and took in a loud, sharp gasp as he jumped up and looked at her.

"Jesus, you scared me," Emma said, running a hand over her face. "I didn't even hear you come in." She paused as she processed the fact that he was wearing his uniform. Her light brown eyebrows lifted up. "Well, hello, Captain."

"Well, hello, Miss Carroll," Steve replied, mimicking her reaction as he saw that she was in a towel. He cleared his throat. "Enjoyed your shower?"

"Yep. Enjoyed your mission?" Emma noticed that neither of them made a move towards each other, even though their eyes couldn't really seem to move anywhere else. With his eyes still locked onto her, Steve half-nodded.

"Well, we caught the guy in question," he said. "So I guess that's a good thing."

"I would agree with that," Emma said. Her eyes flicked down to the rest of his uniform. "I sure do like the spandex."

"And I sure do like the…the towel," Steve said, gesturing with his hand towards her. Emma grinned as she watched him scratch his forehead with his thumb. She walked over towards him until she was standing directly in front of him. "Oh. You…you smell good."

"Thank you," Emma replied. "You look good."

"Thank you." Steve stared up at her with heated blue eyes. "I have a team meeting soon…"

"How soon is soon?" Emma asked. Steve's eyes slid away from hers so he could check the clock, and then he was back to looking up at her.

"About seven minutes," he said. "I came back here to have a few minutes of down time."

"Seven minutes is not very long at all," Emma murmured. She reached out and smoothed her hand over his hair, leaning down and giving him a light kiss on the cheek. As she pulled away, Steve turned his face to the side and gently held her in place so he could kiss her on the mouth. He could smell the generic scent of what he assumed was standard, SHIELD-issued shampoo, but on her, he thought it smelled amazing. Hell, he thought anything to do with Emma was amazing. She could have worn a flour sack for a dress, and he would have thought that it was the greatest thing in the world. At least he could admit that about himself, he thought silently while trying to hide the grin that threatened to slide over his face.

"Rain check?" he asked with a sigh when he pulled back. Emma nodded firmly and gently patted him on the cheek.

"Definitely," she said. She paused as he took her hand in his and just lightly held it. "We can always just make out like a bunch of teenagers for a few minutes, though."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"I can live with that."

"Me, too."

* * *

Five minutes later, Steve walked down the hall with a slight flush in his cheeks and a spring in his step. He didn't really understand the reference of making out like teenagers because the teenagers in his day hadn't been all that big into necking in public. At least not the teenagers who didn't have a reputation, not that there was anything wrong with having a reputation, Steve thought to himself. But he'd said yes to Emma's offer and had, as a result, lived through the best five minutes of his entire life.

He walked to the main hub of the helicarrier knowing that he was a few minutes early. He didn't mind since it would give him a few extra minutes to cool down from the glorious five minutes he'd just had, so when he walked into the hub and saw Grace sitting at the table all by herself, he was surprised.

"Grace?" he said quietly. She looked over at him with a rigid smile on her face, and that was when Steve knew that something was wrong. He opened his mouth to ask her if she were ok, but then he stopped himself. Over the past few months that he'd known Grace, he'd picked up pretty quickly that if she didn't mention something, it was because she didn't want to talk about it. Asking questions would only make her shut down, and that wasn't what he wanted her to do.

"So Loki's locked up?" she asked. Crossing towards her and taking the seat beside her, Steve nodded.

"He went surprisingly calmly," he replied. "Natasha wasn't too thrilled about our jumping out after Tony."

Grace rolled her eyes in a very uncharacteristic manner. "The last person I really want to talk to is Natasha."

And that was when Steve knew something was _really _wrong. Even though he hadn't met the redheaded Russian assassin before today, he'd always known that Natasha and Grace were close; Natasha was one of the few people that Grace openly admitted to liking, and that meant a big deal coming from her. It wasn't that Grace _disliked _people—she just made sure not to mention when she _did _like someone because it betrayed a vulnerability. So for her to admit that she liked Natasha was like her saying she loved something.

He decided to just chance asking what was wrong. It wasn't like Grace to be like this, and if she shut down on him, so be it. "What's wrong?"

She shot him a look that didn't convey how she was feeling, and she sighed.

"Long story. Um, I think Tony and I broke up," she answered, her tone reeking of nonchalance. Calmly, she squinted her amber eyes up at the ceiling as if she were studying a fascinating specimen on the top of the helicarrier. Steve's eyebrows shot up into his hairline in surprise.

'What did he do?" he asked immediately. She tore her eyes away from the ceiling and looked at him with a small, private smile on her lips.

"Long story." Her voice was drowning in exhaustion, and Steve knew that that was her way of trying to get him to leave her alone, but he didn't want to.

"Grace, what did he do?" he insisted. He thought back to all the times that both Grace and Emma had told him that they weren't all that sure if he would like Tony Stark. He'd had faith in Grace's choices, even after she'd told him some stories of some of the shitty things Tony Stark had done, but he suddenly felt a flare up of anger and protectiveness in his chest as he saw that his friend was clearly hurting. Steve didn't have many friends in 2012. That was just a simple fact. He had Emma, and he had Grace, and he'd only known them for a few months, but it was enough. "Look, I know I don't have a very good grasp of the world around me, especially now that aliens and gods have come into the mix, but I know when something doesn't sit right."

However, before Grace could answer, Dr. Banner and Natasha walked into the room. Natasha nodded towards Grace and then at Steve as she chose a chair to sit in.

"How's the lab working out for you?" Grace asked Dr. Banner. Steve glanced at his fellow teammate and saw that her face was wiped clean of any traces of emotion she'd had moments ago.

"It's great," Banner politely replied. "Everything's in working order, thank you." He paused and looked around. "So, uh, what's the point of this meeting? We're getting called together because Loki's been brought in?"

"They just finished in-processing him, and he's being taken to a safe, secure location," Natasha answered. "Fury wants to meet with us to debrief us, talk about our next plan of action. Ah, look, speak of the devil."

Natasha's green eyes slid down to the table where a video began to play on the transparent tabletop. Steve looked down at it without bothering to hide how impressed he was. Technology was always fascinating him. Emma had been bringing him up to date as quickly as she could, but he still found new things like this computer-table-video thing that made him really appreciate how far the technological world had come. He couldn't help thinking of Howard Stark and how thrilled he would have been to see all of this. Then again, Tony Stark had been the one to design all of this, so it didn't really come to a surprise to him that this was Howard's legacy.

Steve watched the video in silence until it was over. Loki was a crazy son of a bitch—he'd known that the second he'd thrown his first punch at the guy, but after watching that video, he was even more convinced of it. He looked up and saw Dr. Banner drily looking around.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner remarked cheerfully.

"Loki's going to drag this out," Steve said, getting straight to business. His eyes darted over to Thor, who had entered into the room during the video. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or of any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Thor's voice was quiet and serious as he relayed the rest of the information to the team. Steve glanced over at Grace to see what she thought of it, but she looked impassive as she always did.

"An army…from outer space," he said blandly. No one else seemed to think anything of this news, and he couldn't imagine why. Emma had never mentioned aliens from outer space as something common that happened, and yet, everyone else looked like this was perfectly natural.

"So, he's building another portal," Banner added as he removed his glasses from their perch on the bridge of his nose. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asked, perking up instantly.

"He's an astrophysicist," Banenr explained without seeming to realize that Thor recognized the name. Thor's expression became disturbed, and he frowned.

"He's a frown," he absentmindedly replied.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Grace added on. Steve resisted the urge to throw out the question if this were a normal, every day kind of thing that happened since everyone else looked perfectly at ease, but that was what he was thinking.

"Along with one of ours," Natasha said. Hawkeye. Steve at least knew that much.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him," he brought up with a frown. "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Dr. Banner respectfully argued.

"With all due respect, Doctor, but like hell we shouldn't," Grace protested. Instead of getting angry or offended, Dr. Banner looked at her, taking in everything she was saying and listening to her.

"That guy's brain is a bag of cats," he honestly replied. "You could _smell _crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak," Thor interrupted with a slight scowl on his strong face. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."

Steve watched Grace roll her eyes before turning them onto the Asgardian.

"He killed 80 people in two days," she deadpanned. Thor paused, realizing that she was right.

"He's adopted," he offered.

"I think it's about the mechanics," Banner said, bringing the subject back. "Iridium. What do they need iridium for?"

"Stabilizing agent."

Steve heard Tony Stark before he saw Tony Stark. He saw the dark-haired billionaire come swaggering into the room while murmuring something into Agent Coulson's ear. Agent Coulson almost looked a little embarrassed by whatever it was that Stark was saying, but that didn't surprise Steve. Out of instinct, he wanted to peek over at Grace to see how she was doing, but he knew that she wanted as little attention drawn to her as possible, so he kept his gaze off of her. He noticed Stark had changed into a suit and tie, looking spiffy for the occasion.

The billionaire brought his attention back to the rest of the room and continued speaking as if he hadn't stopped. "It means the portal won't collapse in on itself like it did at SHIELD." He crossed towards Thor and slapped the large Asgardian firmly on the bicep. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. Besides, I admire your contribution to the feminist movement by not allowing Agent Marks's gender to sway your fighting instincts. I think that it's very considerate to not refuse to fight her just because she's a woman. Good job, buddy." Stark kept walking farther into the room, talking all the while. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants. Raise the mizzenmast! Jib the topsails!"

Steve watched in pure confusion as Stark stopped in front of the control screens and glanced over at one of the agents. Stark smirked. "That man is playing _Galaga_. He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Suddenly, he stopped and covered one of his eyes with a hand as he turned around to look at the screens. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," a female voice said. Steve looked over and saw a dark-haired woman with a mildly annoyed but mostly professional look on her face. He remembered seeing her picture in the debriefing file—she was Fury's second in command: Agent Maria Hill.

"Sounds exhausting," Stark remarked.

Steve couldn't help thinking that what was really exhausting was going to be listening to Tony Stark talk for the next seven minutes. He'd never been more correct in all of his life.


	6. Truth

**Shoutouts to Bellarose95, fluttershypegasus1, Lilybear3121, lovefairytail007, Eva7673, Layla347, LilyHiddleston96, thecruelworldwelivein, MsRose91, and xSuperNovax for reviewing!**

**I know it's been a while since I've updated, so please don't hate me! I just got back to school to start training for my job here, so I've been a little busy! I've also been busy with my Bucky Barnes/OC story and finishing up my Black Widow/Hawkeye origin story, so I've kind of been all over the place. Hopefully I've made up for it by writing a longer chapter than the ones I've written for this story =)**

**Thank you for being patient and bearing with me!**

**Ok, so if you've read _Acting on Instinct_, this may be just a bit of rehashing some scenes you've already read, but I hope you don't mind it. For those of you who haven't read it, this'll be brand new, and I hope you like it, too. Thank y'all for being so patient again. I'll try to do better about updating more frequently! I'd like to get on a set schedule of days to update, so that's my ideal goal!**

**Keep leaving your thoughts and opinions. Every little bit counts and is so much more helpful than you know. I love getting reviews, and they really do keep me motivated to update quickly! So let me know what you think of this chapter!**

**Enjoy! =)**

* * *

Chapter 6

After a few minutes had gone by, Steve tried to get everyone back to the topic at hand. For the past few moments, Stark and Banner had been going at it with all kinds of science talk that Steve didn't even begin to understand. Science had never been a topic that he particularly enjoyed; sure, he thought that it was interesting, but he had never really clicked with it the way he clicked with other topics. Several times during the two scientists' word play match, he'd glanced over at Grace to see if she was following, and it hadn't surprised him to see that the agent with the brain of a genius sponge seemed to be following along perfectly.

"I would start with that stick of his," he suggested out loud. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"Steve's got a point," Grace added. Stark turned his gaze onto her, and he tilted his head to the side, frustration and irritation coloring his features as he realized that she was siding with Steve.

"Uh, thanks for your contribution, Agent Marks, I guess," he snapped. Grace looked back at him with a cool expression, but she didn't say anything else. Steve had never been more proud of his friend.

"I don't know about that, but it _is _powered by the Cube," Fury vocalized. "And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor interjected with a confused look on his face. "I do not understand."

Instantly, Steve realized that he _did _understand, and a wave of relief washed over him. Thank God. After sitting and suffering through Stark's science talk, and after trying for months to catch up on pop culture, here was something that the man out of time could actually understand.

"I do!" he exclaimed with barely reigned in excitement as he pointed his finger to emphasize his point. Proudly, he looked around at all of the faces around him. "I—I understood that reference."

_Good job, baby_.

He could practically hear Emma's warm voice sincerely praising him in his head, and he fought to hide his smile at the thought of it. Recently, she'd taken to calling him little endearments, and he had to say that he didn't mind it at all. Though honestly, she could have called him anything, and he wouldn't have minded. It was strange for him to be so hung up on a girl, but God, he couldn't say that it bothered him in the slightest. She was smart and funny and gorgeous and patient and kind and _selfless_. She was so selfless that it astounded him. Oftentimes, she wound up working late at the hospital to make sure that her patients felt comfortable, and she went out of her way to do special things for them to make them feel at home. Actually, it was no wonder that he was so crazy about her, he thought to himself. She was everything he wanted to be.

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Stark asked as he turned towards Banner and began to walk off.

"This way, sir," Banner replied, returning Stark's smile. As everyone else began to file out of the room, Grace openly rolled her eyes and leaned in closer to Steve so that only he could hear her.

"Great, he's going to go have a science orgasm," she muttered irritably under her breath. Steve's eyes widened as he thought about Stark and the word "orgasm" together, and he tried not to look horrified, meriting an annoyed glance from Grace. "Steve, it's 2012. If you can experience an orgasm without looking horrified, you can listen to me say the word 'orgasm' without looking horrified."

"I think I was more horrified by your putting Tony and orgasm together in the same sentence," Steve genuinely replied. For a second, Grace just stared blankly at him, but then she began to laugh.

"Ok, you have a point," she conceded. "I guess that would be pretty horrible for you."

"Yeah. Considering that I feel like his grandfather. Grace, I knew his _father_. I was _friends _with his father," Steve pointed out. "This is very…out there for me."

"I don't doubt it," Grace said quietly, her laughter dying away as she brought herself back down. "I definitely do not doubt it, Steve." She took a breath and changed the subject. "I think you're right—we need to be trying to locate the Cube through Loki. I don't know why no one else seems to think that that's the best place to start. He's clearly got something up his sleeve, and if we can get him to confess it to us, we'll be one step ahead of him."

"Yeah, I just don't think it'll be that easy," Steve countered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully with his thumb.

Grace scoffed. "Of course it's not going to be easy, but when you have Nat and me in on it, we'll be able to get him to confess something."

"Good cop, bad cop?" Steve asked. He remembered Emma explaining that move to him when they'd been watching a cop TV show together several weeks ago.

"Nah," Grace answered, shaking her head. "We have different extraction methods, so when you combine the both of them, we'll be able to reach some kind of conclusion. We wouldn't do it together because that's too obvious."

"So what's this going on with you and Natasha and Tony?" Steve asked. He knew that something was bugging Grace in regards to the other two team members, and by the look on her face at the mention of them, he knew he was right.

"Uh, I tried to kill Natasha when I first joined up with SHIELD," Grace replied with a nonchalant shrug, apparently having decided that it wasn't worth trying to deny it any longer. Steve didn't bother to hide the look of complete and total astonishment on his face as she continued to speak. "I was out of my mind in survival mode, so I cracked her skull open, and she told Tony about it for whatever reason. I mean, I don't even remember attacking her, so…yeah."

Steve thought about how to address everything she'd just said. Her face, though blank, was somewhat expectant as she waited for him to reply. Like any other human being, he desperately wanted to know more about her cracking Natasha's skull open, but he was a decent enough human being to know that that was not the kind of response Grace was looking for.

"That's why you and Tony split?" he asked, deciding that that was a safe question. Grace winced and shook her head, her expression guarded and pained all at the same time.

"No, uh, he asked me about it, and we kind of have this unspoken agreement to not ask about fucked up times of our lives. I got upset, and then we fought about it. Painful shit got dragged up." She shrugged as if it didn't matter, but Steve wasn't convinced. "It's no big deal."

_Well_, Steve thought to himself_, if it's not a big deal, then why do you look like you're about to fall apart?_

But because he was Steve Rogers, and because he knew better than to ask such a question, he kept his mouth closed. He continued to watch her pull herself together; being around Grace was another strange experience he hadn't quite gotten used to yet. Typically, she was stony-faced and dry and didn't hesitate to call anyone out on his shit, but sometimes she let the wall drop away for just a few seconds, and she was expressive—for her, at least she was expressive—and silly and appreciated a good joke. But it was only for a second that she ever let Steve see that. Deep down, he had a feeling that if he didn't have the shared connection of the Serum and her father with her, she wouldn't let him see even that.

So even though Steve didn't have very much of an idea as to what was going on around him, he at least had a friend and someone who was more than a friend, and he was ok with that. He was very ok with that.

* * *

Emma closed the door of her room behind her and started off down the hall in search of Steve. She'd been trying to think of things to do to make herself look busy for the past 10 minutes, but so far, she'd come up pretty short. The medical staff probably hadn't needed her for anything, and Steve was off being official, so the next best thing for her to do was just wander around and hope that something came up.

It wasn't that she disliked field work, but she had an idea that if she had the choice between going back into the field or staying in the hospital, she'd much prefer to remain in the hospital. At least in the hospital, there was always something to do—there were more patients to take care of, dressings to change, food to serve, medications to divvy out. There was always _something_. And here on the helicarrier, Emma felt as though she didn't have a purpose. She felt useless, and she hated feeling that way. She liked keeping her hands busy, and the helicarrier wasn't doing much to keep her active and on her toes.

As she walked down the hall, she caught sight of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner working in one of the labs. Quietly, she walked through the open doors and leaned against the doorframe.

"Hey, Tony. Got any more broken ribs for me to patch up?" she called out. Tony turned over his shoulder, his dark eyes landing on her, and then he grinned and gave her one of his infamous Tony Stark smirks.

"Ah, Emma Carroll. Ever the caretaker. Fortunately, I am in one piece for the time being." He crossed over to the other side of the table he was using and leaned against it, folding his arms over his chest. "What can I do for you? It's not every day that a lovely nurse such as yourself comes wandering into a lab full of crazy scientists."

Emma laughed and smiled brightly back at him. Even though she knew he had hard feelings towards Steve, she liked Tony Stark. He didn't have much of a reputation across the country or even amongst SHIELD as a terribly friendly, personable guy, but he'd always been nice to her, and she appreciated that about him. She sincerely believed that he was a good person who just didn't like to let others see how good he was on a daily basis.

"I'm looking for Steve, actually," she replied. Typical of Tony, he made a face and blatantly rolled his eyes.

"He's out in the main area with Agent Marks," he answered.

"Perfect!" Emma exclaimed with a smile. "I was just wanting to see her, too."

She was about to turn and start on her way when she noticed Tony's mouth twist into something akin to a grimace, and she paused. He looked like he was trying to smile but had failed at making his muscles move the way his mind had told them to. It was then that she noticed he didn't have that look on his face the way he always did whenever he talked about Grace or listened to her talk about Grace—if anything, he looked pained by it, and Emma instantly felt her concern start to bubble up.

"Is everything ok?" she asked with a frown, trying not to come across as prying because that wasn't what she wanted to do at all. She didn't expect Tony to open up to her, but she wanted him to know that if he needed a random person to talk to, he could always talk to her. In response, Tony forced a smile across his face, and he sharply nodded.

"Yep. Everything's great. Everything's perfect," he replied, his voice a little louder than it should have been. Emma blinked as she thought about what to do now. It was clear that he didn't want to talk, and she didn't feel close enough with him to try to get him to talk to her the way she could with her friends, so she just nodded in acceptance.

"I'll see you later, Tony," she said, still smiling at him.

"See ya, Carroll," Tony called after her as he lifted a hand in a wave. Smoothly, Emma turned around and walked down the hall to the atrium. She tried to get the look in Tony's eyes out of her mind, but she couldn't. As she walked farther down the hall, she heard Steve and Grace's voices talking together. She rounded the corner and saw Grace looking less guarded than usual, though not by much.

Grace was already looking in Emma's direction, probably having sensed her, so by the time Steve twisted his head back over his shoulder to see what she was looking at, he caught Emma arriving at the end of the hallway.

Immediately, he felt his face brighten up at the sight of her. "Hi, sweetheart." He beckoned her over to him, noticing how good she looked in her SHIELD medic uniform.

"Hey, guys, I just came to check in on everyone and see if you're ok," Emma replied. She crossed towards Steve and placed a light hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Grace, I just saw Tony in the lab with who I'm guessing is Dr. Banner?"

Instead of the usual lukewarm response that Grace gave Emma, she offered up a tiny smile and a short nod. Emma wasn't a rocket scientist, and she couldn't read people the amazingly detailed way that Grace could, but she knew enough about psychology and people to know that something was very off with the superstar couple. "Is everything ok with you guys? He looked pretty upset."

"Tony Stark is a jerk," Steve blurted out in a dry mutter. Grace shot him a sharp look, but he unapologetically shrugged. "It's true."

"_It's fine_," Grace stressed. Lifting her hand, she smoothed it over her dark brown hair and looked up at the ceiling as if she couldn't believe how bored she was. "I bet this is all pretty boring for you. There are no injured people to take care of."

"I only hope it stays that way," Emma replied with a slight frown. She tried to think of what it would be like giving medical care to these superheroes if any of them got hurt. Grace was an anomaly with her Serum—hell, _Steve _was an anomaly with _his _Serum, and that wasn't even looking at Thor, the Asgardian. She didn't know much about Thor, but she knew he wasn't from this world, and that was enough to make her feel nervous on how she was supposed to treat him if he got hurt.

For the millionth time in the past 24 hours, she realized just how far in over her head she was. The only people she felt that she could actually treat on this helicarrier were Natasha Romanoff, Phil Coulson, Maria Hill, Director Fury, and Tony Stark. Even Tony was pushing it since he had the whole arc reactor in his chest to worry about, but basically, out of everyone on this team of super people, those five people were the only ones that she wouldn't feel completely clueless in treating.

Steve gently reached up and put his hand over hers. "Hey, Grace and I have some stuff to do. I'll come find you later, ok?"

His voice was soft, and he looked genuinely regretful, so Emma couldn't help but smile at him. He was giving her that look that always made her knees feel a little weak. Inside, she felt a flutter of guilt over not having told her family back home in Connecticut that she was seeing someone, especially someone like Steve. Earlier that week, she'd talked to her aunt, and her aunt had mentioned a friend of Emma's older cousin Evan that she thought Emma would get along great with.

Emma had thought about telling her aunt then that she was seeing someone, but she just hadn't been able to muster up the nerve to just yet. It wasn't that she was ashamed of Steve—God, she wasn't ashamed of him at all. She was so proud of him it nearly made her heart burst. She just didn't want to share him with the rest of her family yet. Telling them would mean that they'd want her to bring him home to meet them, and she couldn't do that yet. She simply couldn't.

She gave him a smile and a gentle shoulder squeeze as she bent over a little bit to give him a quick kiss on the lips. As she pulled back, her hand lingered over the spandex of his uniform. "See you, Grace."

Grace waved at her and moved her mouth into what Emma guessed was supposed to be a smile. But she didn't say anything. Grace and Tony were people who wouldn't talk unless they wanted to, and she wasn't close enough friends with either of them to get them to share with her. Steve, however, was close enough with Grace to get her to open up. Emma could at least feel comforted by the fact that if Grace needed someone to talk to, she had Steve.

Surprisingly, she really wasn't jealous of Grace. At first, she'd kind of expected to feel those small pangs of jealousy towards the agent who was able to bond with Steve in a way that Emma could never even begin to imagine, but instead of feeling jealous, Emma felt grateful. She was grateful that Steve could talk to someone who could relate to him; these days, he needed that. As much as she knew he loved her and wanted to be with her and could talk to her about anything, he needed someone who could understand him in a different way. And that someone was Grace.

Besides, it was some consolation for Emma to realize that while Grace had Steve as a best friend, Emma got to have Steve as her boyfriend. And that was all the consolation in the world that she needed.

"So what's this stuff we're going to do?" Grace curiously asked. Without warning, Steve's face lit up into a bright, dazzling smile that he'd usually reserved for press posters back in his bonds-selling days.

"We're going to go exploring," he replied. "SHIELD's got to have secrets on this helicarrier. When Fury came to talk to me about the Tesseract, he knew that HYDRA's weapons were powered by the Tesseract. I'll bet you that he's got those weapons on board here somewhere, and I want to see if I'm right."

Grace's eyebrows drew together in a small frown, and she nodded slightly as she listened to him. "We'll have to check the weapons storage unit."

"We have to figure out where that is first," Steve pointed out.

"I already know where that is," Grace answered in a blasé tone as she stood up from her seat. Steve couldn't help the look of surprise that came over his face at how casually she'd just spilled that bit of information.

"You know?" he asked.

"Yeah. Tony designed this helicarrier. I watched him draw up these plans, so I know where everything is. My clearance is also high enough so that I know where the weapons storage unit is, anyway." She shrugged. "Though actually…SHIELD wouldn't keep it in there where anyone could access it. They'd keep it in the classified section."

"Classified?" Steve repeated. Of course SHIELD would have a Classified section. Of course.

"HYDRA weapons aren't something that they'd want just anyone getting their hands on, so they'd put them away where no one could find them unless you had a high enough clearance," Grace explained.

"Which you have," Steve added on.

"Which _of course _I have. So that's where we'll go."

"Shall we, Agent?"

"Let's, Captain." Grace smirked at him in a way that was more characteristically herself, and he stood up to join her as they started walking down the hall. Everything Grace had said so far had made sense—if SHIELD was trying to figure out more about the Tesseract and the HYDRA weapons worked like the Tesseract, it would be logical to bring the weapons on board for further study.

Steve's mind started racing with possible theories and reasons as to why SHIELD would have these godawful things on board the helicarrier when he walked past the lab with Stark and Banner and made the mistake of looking inside. Right inside the lab was Tony Stark stabbing Bruce Banner in the side with a sharp object.

"Did you see that?" he hissed, his muscles tensing in anger towards Tony's carelessness.

"No," Grace deadpanned.

"Tony just zapped Banner." He didn't wait for Grace to reply. Instead, he pressed the access button into the lab and stalked in furiously. "Hey!"

"Nothing?" Stark asked with a curious wince as he realized that Banner wasn't going to Hulk out after he'd just stabbed him.

"Are you nuts?" Steve snapped. The billionaire glanced nonchalantly at him.

"Jury's out," he dismissively replied. Behind him, Steve could feel Grace walking up to join him. Stark looked back at Banner, completely ignoring Grace, with an impressed look on his face.

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" he asked. "What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve demanded, determined not to let Stark dismiss him the way the genius seemed so intent on doing.

"Funny things are," Stark quipped smartly.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Steve hated himself for sounding like a strict parent, but he hated the fact that Stark needed that kind of supervision even more. If you took away the 70 years that Steve had been in the ice, Stark was older than him—Stark was older, and yet Steve's maturity far surpassed his. The Super Soldier caught sight of Banner, and he gave the man an apologetic nod. "No offense, Doc."

Good-naturedly, Banner smiled back at the Army captain. "Uh, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut," Stark emphasized gleefully. "Look at Agent Marks here. Whenever she finds anything threatening, she turns into her own little version of a monster. She struts. If she can do it, you _definitely _can."

"We've already talked about it, Mr. Stark," Grace icily snapped. Stark shrugged, again brushing it all off.

"You need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve added.

"Do you think I'm not?" Stark shot Steve an annoyed glance. "Why did Fury call us in? Why _now_? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked, putting two and two together as he realized what Stark was implying.

"He's a spy," Stark explained. "Captain, he's _the _spy. His secrets have secrets. In a way, he's even more lethal than Agent Marks, not necessarily because of his skills but because of what he knows. It's bugging him, too." He nodded towards Banner. "Isn't it?"

"Uhhh." Banner looked up and around him as he realized that Stark had put him on the spot. "I just want to finish my work here, and—"

"Doctor?' Grace insisted. Banner paused, realizing that he wasn't getting out of this with two of the world's pushiest people wanting an answer from him. Sighing, he removed his glasses and looked around at them.

"'A warm light for all mankind.' Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube," he said slowly.

"I heard it," Steve said, waiting for the doctor to continue.

"Well, I think it was meant for you." Banner pointed towards Stark, using the pen in his hand as a pointer. He glanced over at Grace and gestured to her, too. "Well, uh, the two of you, I guess."

Pleased by Banner's theory, Stark held out a small bag of food that he'd been snacking out of to the scientist, and Banner confusedly took a few pieces of the stuff in the bag.

"Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the Tower, it was all over the news," Banner added.

"The Stark Tower," Steve repeated, unwilling to hide the look of disgust on his face. "That big, ugly—" Suddenly, he felt Grace's heated eyes on him, but he realized that it was too late to take his words back. "—building in New York?"

"It's powering by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source," Banner explained. "That building will run itself for, what, a year?"

"It's just the prototype," Stark answered in a smug tone. He glanced at Steve. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

"The Tower was my idea," Grace interjected. Steve briefly considered banging his head off the side of the wall in an attempt to knock himself out—this was the last thing he wanted to do. He didn't like getting caught up in personal confrontations, and that was exactly what was about to happen. Whatever was going on between Grace and Tony was extremely personal for the two of them, and Steve suddenly felt as though he were spying on something he shouldn't have been as the two started arguing.

He looked over to the window and tried to pretend he were elsewhere. He could do it if he tried hard enough, but today, he couldn't escape the fact that this was where he was. He was on a helicarrier, he was trying to hunt down an alien god who had stolen an alien energy cube, and he was listening to an indestructible super secret agent fight with a man who could fly in a metal suit.

This, unfortunately, was Steve's reality.

* * *

Emma's reality, on the other hand, wasn't much better. As soon as she walked through the door of the medical wing, she realized that no one was there. She slowed to a stop and looked around her, awkwardly trying to decide what to do. She didn't want to go back up to the room and hide out there, but she didn't want to sit here alone in the medical wing. However, she didn't want to go hunt down the other nurses because she didn't get a good feeling from them, and she wasn't really in the mood to deal with their strange attitudes towards her.

She was stuck in a way she'd never been before, and she didn't like it. Seeing as she didn't have many options, she decided it'd probably be best to try to get to know the wing a little better. Even though she'd spent all day yesterday getting in training and figuring out where things were, she figured it wouldn't hurt to familiarize herself even more.

If an injured Avenger needed to be treated, she didn't want to be the one who froze because she wasn't able to remember where certain things were. Walking around, she began testing her memory to see if everything was where she remembered it to be. She was looking at the intubation tubes when she heard voices coming from one of the examination rooms. Curiously, Emma shut the drawer and started walking to see who else was in the wing with her. The doctors didn't seem to be the type to hang around, but then again, neither did the nurses.

As she approached the open door, she heard her name.

"—Emma. I've never even heard of her before. Don't you think we would have heard something about her? I mean, she's dating Captain America, and Agent Coulson personally asked her to come on board." That was Isabel talking.

"I don't know, man. She must be good. Agent Coulson's a perfectionist," Tara answered.

"Yeah, I guess so. It just seems weird. She had to have asked for a transfer. You don't think she's lying about that? Look at how coincidental it is—her superhero boyfriend gets assigned this job, and then she's tasked to be here, too. She's not a field nurse—she's a hospital nurse. It just looks weird to me," Isabel replied honestly. "I don't know. The whole thing reeks of weird."

"This entire mission we're supposed to be on reeks of weird," Tara corrected. "No one's told us anything about what's going on. I get that they usually don't do that, anyway, because everything's so classified, but this is different. This is really serious."

"Yeah, look at everyone who's on the helicarrier," Isabel pointed out. "There are legends literally all over this thing. You have fucking Iron Man, Black Widow, Scorpion, the Hulk, and Captain America. I don't even know who the blond guy is, but he looks like some kind of legend, too."

"I'll admit it. All of this is weird, and yeah, it's weird that they brought Emma Carroll on when she doesn't know shit about how to work a field mission, but…I don't know. Who am I to guess why SHIELD does what they do? If they think it'll make her feel better to be with her boyfriend, let them do it." Tara sighed. Emma felt her heart start to pound at a painfully fast rate beneath her ribs, and she swallowed, suddenly feeling very sick.

"I'm not saying I'm a homewrecker, but if Captain America needs to be treated, you know I'll be trying my hardest to push Miss Carroll out of the way," Isabel said with a laugh.

"Oh, my God, stop! You're awful!" Tara exclaimed, but she was laughing, too. Suddenly, Emma didn't want to hear anymore. She turned, and she walked away, biting her lip so hard she didn't even notice she'd broken the skin until she tasted the blood in her mouth.


	7. Words

**Shoutouts to Eva7673, lovefairytail007, Jo, EverlastingMuse, MsRose91, Guest, Layla347, LilyHiddleston96, thecruelworldwelivein, and Guest for reviewing!**

**I know it's been a while since I've updated, but I tried to make this a really good chapter for you guys! Seriously, I have no idea why I thought that writing three stories at once would be a good idea, but I guess I'm paying the price for it now. Thank y'all so much for having patience with me and for still sticking around! It means so much.**

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**Enjoy! =)**

* * *

Chapter 7

Emma did the most cliché thing in the world. She found a utility closet, went inside, turned a bucket upside down, and then sat on top of it, turning off the lights so that she could be in complete darkness. Breathing quietly, she tried to calm the anger that was starting to rise up inside her chest. She'd known that she was out of place before—God, she hadn't been under any false pretenses with the nurses on the helicarrier. She'd been more than aware of the looks that they'd been giving her, especially after finding out that she was dating Steve, and honestly, she'd known that they were most likely going around talking about her. However, she could have lived without hearing it.

At this point, Emma just wanted to go home. She wanted to go curl up in her bed with a pot of coffee and never talk to anyone ever again. Except for maybe Steve. She didn't mind him because he was, well, he was _Steve_. He was Steve Rogers, and he loved her, and by God, she was in love with him. She thought back to just a few hours ago when Steve had pointed out the look the other nurses had given her as soon as they'd figured out that he was dating her. It felt like a lifetime ago, and she hated that she'd been so naïve as to have not picked up on it on her own.

Letting out a quiet sigh, she leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees, resting her head in her hands. She was so out of place here—she was a hospital nurse. She thrived in the operating room, in the patients' rooms. Not here. She didn't like to sit by idly when she could be doing something, and she didn't like feeling unprepared. So far, no one had told her anything about the mission, and she felt as though she were flying into this blind. It didn't seem right, and she hated it.

Suddenly, the door opened, and her head shot up and her heart racing as she panicked. How the hell was she going to cover this up? The light from out in the hall was bright, and she winced against the glare of it as she looked up into the face of Bruce Banner. Surprised, the scientist blinked at her but didn't make a big deal out of the surprise.

"Hi," he greeted.

"Oh. Hi. Um—I'm sorry—I was just—I just needed a few—um—I'll go—" Emma sputtered, quickly bringing herself up to her feet. Dr. Banner took a few steps back so that she'd feel less crowded.

"This a common thing?" he asked, his voice amused.

"Um—no. Not—not really." Emma brushed a hand over her face. She could feel it slowly growing hot, and she knew that that meant she must have been bright red with embarrassment. "It's kind of been a long day, and I—I thought it'd be better if I just took a few to…to chill out. But I guess a utility closet wasn't the best…spot for it…"

She felt like an asshole. Her grasp of the English language had completely evaporated, and here she was stumbling around her words like some incoherent kid who didn't know any better about anything. She let out a frustrated sigh and pushed a hand through her hair, ducking her face away from him.

"I've been known to take a few in a closet before," Dr. Banner mildly replied. His mouth quirked up into a tiny, ironic smile. "I've seen weirder things happen in my line of work."

"Yeah, I bet," Emma sighed. "Anyway…I'm sorry about—about that. I didn't think anyone really used these closets, but I have been proven wrong."

"All I need are a few Clorox wipes," Banner answered with a shrug. "You can go back in when I'm done, if you want. I'll redirect anyone who tries to come through here if you need a few more minutes to yourself."

Emma felt her embarrassment melt away a little bit as she saw the sincerity on the scientist's face. Smiling, she folded her arms over her chest. "Thanks. I appreciate that. I should probably go, anyway. I feel like if I go back in, I'll never come out. And I'm here for a reason."

She tapped the SHIELD Medic emblem on the left side of her field uniform she'd been given first thing upon her arrival yesterday. Banner's dark brown eyes darted over to it, and his smile widened a bit more. "You're a nurse. That's right."

"A _hospital _nurse," Emma stressed, suddenly feeling as though it were very important he know she wasn't used to this. "This is my first time in the field. So…yeah."

"How do you like it so far?" Banner asked, genuinely interested. Uncomfortably, Emma shrugged, and she tried not to look as awkward as she felt.

"It's ok," she said. "I'd much rather prefer to be in the hospital than in the field, though. I think I've figured that much out."

"Smart." Banner smiled quietly at her. Tilting his head to the side, he examined her a little more closely. "Steve's dating you, right?"

"Yeah," Emma slowly replied. She noticed how Dr. Banner had said Steve was dating _her _instead of saying that she was dating _Steve_. "He's my boyfriend. Partner. Romantic interest. Whatever you want to call him."

"I thought so." Banner nodded his head. "He's a hell of a soldier."

"Yeah, well, he's a hell of a person," Emma said with a genuine smile on her face.

Bruce reached into the closet and pulled out a container of Clorox wipes. He lifted it into the air so that Emma could see it, and he gave her a grim smile. "Here we go. Well, I'll get out of your hair now. You can go back to your closet if you want. I won't tell anyone I saw you here, and I'll send people to different closets if you're going to go back in."

Emma let out a gentle laugh, and she shook her head, tightening her arms over her chest as she tried not to feel too self-conscious. "Thanks, but I think I should probably stay out. I really do think that if I go back in, I'll stay there for the rest of the time we're on this helicarrier, and I don't think that that'll be all that productive."

"Suit yourself." Bruce smiled back at her, a soft smile that fit his personality to a tee. "It was nice meeting you. I'm sure Steve's a happy man."

"It was nice meeting you, too," Emma replied. She tried to think of something to say in response to his comment about Steve, but before she could really start to think of anything good, Dr. Banner was gone, and she was in the hall alone. He'd left the door to the closet open, and for a brief second, she thought about going back in and hiding there forever and ever, but she didn't. She might not have powers to save the world, but she could at least face a bunch of childish nurses.

She could at least do that.

* * *

"Steve?" Grace's voice distracted the Super Soldier as he finished pushing the metal door to the side.

"Yeah?" He turned and looked over his shoulder, only to see Grace holding up her SHIELD ID card. Instantly, his face fell as he realized that he'd moved the door for nothing—with Grace's high clearance, she easily could have scanned them in.

"I could've opened that," she replied.

"Too late for that now, I guess." He shrugged. "Come on. Do you know where they'd keep the HYDRA weapons?"

Grace crossed into the storage room behind him, her amber eyes scanning over all of the boxes and crates that surrounded them. Steve didn't know if SHIELD had a labeling system, but he figured that they did. SHIELD was a government organization with many secrets to keep. And in order to keep secrets, they had to know where the secrets were.

"No idea," Grace replied. "They wouldn't post a label on the front or anything because that could easily fall into the wrong hands."

Without any warning, she leapt up towards the railing of the balcony that hung above them. Steve hadn't actually seen Grace in combat in person; granted, he'd seen plenty of videos of her fight, and he knew that she had enhanced abilities, but it was a sight for him to behold as she easily and effortlessly took hold of the railing and swung herself over. And Steve never said no to a challenge. Following her path exactly, he swung himself up and over to land beside her.

"Show off," he mumbled under his breath but loud enough so that she could hear.

"Well, Captain, let's get looking," Grace said, and then she started opening the cases closest to her. If Steve were any less determined, he would have felt overwhelmed by all of these silver containers, but if his suspicions were right, he knew that SHIELD would have put HYDRA's weapons somewhere on here. He just had to figure out where.

He opened case after case, only to find nothing there. He was just starting to feel frustrated when he opened one of the cases, and he froze. There in front of him was a HYDRA weapon. In the back of his mind, he could hear the sound of one of these things firing; he could remember what it'd felt like in his hands, how it'd looked in HYDRA's hands. A chill ran down his spine as all of his memories came flashing back towards him. Sometimes he could forget that he was from a different time—well, he couldn't ever really _forget_, but he could at least push it to the corners of his brain—but now, he was faced with his past as if he were living it again.

"Grace," he said out loud. Within seconds, Grace's brunette head appeared from around the corner, a look of curiosity on her face. He didn't beckon her over, nor did he look up as she crossed towards him. Once she was beside him, she let out a low whistle.

"Well," she drily remarked. "I think we found the jackpot."

"And I think SHIELD has a lot of explaining to do." Steve couldn't keep the anger out of his voice. "Maybe Tony's theory isn't so crazy after all."

"After finding this, I'd say that SHIELD better have some answers because we sure as hell have questions. Grab a weapon. Let's go show this to Tony and Banner," Grace said, her tone not really a suggestion so much as an order. Steve reached into the case and pulled out the weapon, holding it familiarly in his hands. He never could have imagined that he'd be holding one of these things again, and yet, here he was. Then again, he never could have imagined that he'd be living in 2012 fighting aliens, so he couldn't say very much about his expectations.

He and Grace walked down the hall and back into the lab, passing agents who suspiciously eyed them and the large weapons they carried in their hands. As Steve walked through the door of the lab, he caught the tail end of Stark's sentence. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Nick Fury standing in the lab with them with an expression of guilt and possible frustration on his own face.

"—_is _Phase Two?" Stark asked. Steve wanted to know what Phase Two was, and he had a feeling that it had to do with the HYDRA weapon he was carrying. Slamming it on the table in front of him, he heatedly turned his gaze onto the rest of the team.

"Phase Two is SHIELD uses the Cube to build weapons," he answered for everyone. He caught Stark's eye and noticed the annoyed expression crossing the older man's face. "Sorry. Computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury said calmly. "This does _not _mean that we're making—"

"I'm sorry, Nick," Stark shouted over Fury, cutting the man off. He turned the computer screen around so that everyone could see what he'd found. "What, were you lying?"

"That's what this is all about?" Grace asked incredulously. Steve looked over at her and saw her amber eyes large with shock. "Weapons? The Tesseract is being used to make _weapons_, and that's why SHIELD wants it so badly?"

"Stand down, Agent," Fury warned, his eye turning onto Grace.

"I was wrong, Director," Steve interjected. He could hear the bitterness in his own voice. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

All of a sudden, Thor and Natasha came storming into the room. Thor looked deeply bothered by something, but Natasha looked all business-like and shaken.

"Great, the Brady Bunch is all here," Grace mumbled under her breath. Steve decided not to tell her that he didn't understand her reference—now wasn't the time to bring it up, even though he'd have to ask Emma what that meant.

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked as his eyes turned onto Natasha.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" the redhead countered without wasting a beat.

Banner raised his eyebrows in a mixture of surprise and amusement, and he let out a short laugh. "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well-removed."

"Loki is manipulating you," Natasha replied in a steady, even voice without looking away from him.

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" Banner frowned a little bit.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," Banner said to make it clear that he wasn't about to leave.

"You all knew what you were getting into by asking him to come on board," Grace tersely answered. "Everyone was well aware of the risk."

"Thank you, Agent. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction," he said, pointing to a diagram on the screen. Steve exchanged a look with Grace—he might not have understood very much about technology, but he could put together what Banner was pointing at.

"Because of him," Fury snapped and pointed to Thor. Everyone's eyes landed on the blonde god, who looked surprised to be singled out as the cause of something so serious as the building of weapons of mass destruction.

"Me?" he asked.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned," Fury explained.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor protested. His eyes were wide, as if he couldn't believe why he was suddenly being put under attack. Steve had only had one real conversation with him, but he liked Thor. He seemed like he wanted to do the right thing, and Steve respected that about him.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury countered. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve smartly retorted with a smirk.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it. And his allies," Thor added. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Grace snapped. She was no longer hiding that she was growing increasingly more annoyed the longer that everyone kept arguing.

"You forced our hand." Fury's voice still remained calm, even though Steve could see that he was starting to lose his cool just a little bit. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent," Stark suddenly interrupted. "Because that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark." Fury had a point.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep in—" Steve started, but Stark cut him off.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on. How is this now about me?" The billionaire held up his hand to stop Steve from going any further with his statement. Steve felt anger rise up in his stomach as he looked at the older man, this man who should have been younger than him. Suddenly, everything Steve had been repressing over the past 24 hours started to churn up towards the surface. This whole thing was shitty. He was arguing with an overgrown brat who should have been at least 50 years younger than him. God, Steve wasn't even supposed to be here. He was supposed to be in his 90s in an old folks' home or dead in the ocean, the way he should have been. But no. He was here arguing with his friend's son about things that Stark would never understand because he'd never had that exposure.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve snapped before he could stop himself. Grace put her hand on his arm.

"Steve," she quietly warned.

"Don't tell me you're going to stick up for him now!" His gaze landed on her, and he took in the sight of her face. She wasn't giving away very much, but by the way she hesitated showed him that that was exactly what she was doing. Quickly, she took her hand back as she saw his anger, and she took a breath.

"I'm not sticking up for him. Just stop, ok?" She ran a hand over her hair in frustration.

"You deserve better than this, Grace. You deserve a hell of a lot better than this guy," Steve bluntly replied. He didn't care anymore that he was saying this stuff in front of Stark—hell, it was probably good for the guy to hear it all.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor snidely commented.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury turned to glare irritably at the tall, blonde Asgardian.

"You treat your champions with such mistrust," Thor accused.

_Is that what this is? _Steve thought bitterly to himself as he looked around at all of his brand new team members. He couldn't help thinking that if he'd been thawed for this, he'd been thawed for basically nothing.

"Are you boys really that naïve?" Natasha droned, her green eyes flashing. "SHIELD monitors potential threats."

"Captain America's on threat watch?" Banner smirked.

"We all are," Grace answered sharply.

"Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees? And Captain, you think you can move in on my girl?" Stark snapped.

Steve had had it. This was the last straw. If Stark wanted to accuse him of being a goody-two-shoes, ok. If Stark wanted to accuse him of being old, ok. But for the billionaire to accuse him of flirting with an already taken woman when he was already in a relationship? No. "I'm not moving in on anyone, Stark, and last time I checked, she dumped you."

"Wait, Grace, you broke up with Tony?" Natasha asked without masking her surprise. Steve suddenly felt as though he shouldn't have said anything by the surprise on the redhead's face. He caught Stark's sharp glance towards the amber-eyed agent.

"Good job telling everyone, Agent," Stark sneered.

"Stark, so help me, God, if you make one more wisecrack, and if you don't back off of Grace—" Steve started

"Threat! Verbal threat! I feel threatened!" Stark interrupted in a shout as he pointed at Steve.

"Show some respect," Steve spat. He could feel his anger starting to rise up higher and higher. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this angry—he always got angry whenever he worked out with the punching bags, but this was different. This was literally everything he'd been suppressing.

"Respect what?" Stark snapped back.

"To Grace, Banner, everyone in this room."

"I show plenty of respect to people who deserve it, Rogers."

"Tony—" Grace began speaking. Everyone was speaking, and no one seemed to be making any sense anymore.

"Agent, if you're going to lecture me, we're not together anymore, so I don't have to pretend to listen to it."

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor interjected. Grace rolled her amber eyes, and she glared fiercely at him.

"I swear, if the next motherfucking thing out of your mouth sounds like another poorly written Shakespeare line, I will lose it," she threatened.

"Shakespeare?" Thor asked, clearly not getting the reference. Steve thanked God that _he_ did, at least. He resisted the urge to bash his head against the wall, and he gritted his teeth as he tried to calm himself down. Getting angry wasn't going to help anything; getting angry wasn't going to find Loki or figure out why Fury wasn't to build weapons. Getting angry was exactly what Loki wanted, and the last thing in the goddamn world he wanted to do was give in to what Loki had planned for them.

However, this looked like it was going to be a battle Steve was going to lose.

* * *

"Emma? Emma!"

Emma pulled herself out of her thoughts, and she watched Agent Coulson walk towards her. "Hey. What's up?"

"Nothing much. Doing the rounds. Making sure everything's ok. Are you ok?" Coulson asked. Nodding, Emma smiled so she didn't give anything away.

"Yeah," she replied. "Yeah, everything's going well. I've just been walking around. Getting some fresh air."

"There isn't fresh air on a helicarrier," Coulson pointed out. Still smiling, she shrugged and lifted a hand to brush some of her blonde hair out of her face.

"Just taking a walk. Things have been pretty slow so far," she said diplomatically. Coulson opened his mouth to say something, but she decided to go ahead and ask the question that had been plaguing her ever since she'd set foot on the helicarrier. "Agent Coulson, why did you ask me to be a part of the Med Team here?"

Coulson paused, surprised by her question. "You're a good nurse, Emma. I thought you'd enjoy the opportunity to get some field work in. You've never done field work before, am I right?"

"No, you are," Emma agreed. She took a breath and ran her hand through her hair again out of nervous habit. "But that's the thing. I don't have field clearance. I should be in a hospital. I think I'm not the only part of this Medical Team who's wondering why I'm here."

"Why do you say that?" A frown passed over the older agent's face, and Emma felt guilty for making him even more worried than he already was.

"I just—I think everyone else is a little confused," she said. "I'm basically some new kid, and they don't know me." She paused, and then she said the thing that was really on her mind. "They also think I requested a transfer here because of Steve."

Realization slowly filled Coulson's eyes, and he let out an exasperated sigh as he closed them in resignation. "Dammit. I didn't even think about that."

"So why am I here, Agent?" Emma asked, careful to keep her voice gentle. Coulson opened his eyes and looked at her with a slightly guilty expression. She'd never seen him look particularly guilty before, but he looked genuinely regretful.

"I asked you to come along because I thought you'd be good for Steve," he admitted. "I also thought it'd be good for you to get field experience because we're trying to bring together a Medical Team to always accompany the Avengers on any mission they're assigned. This was going to be a bit of a trial run."

"But I was mainly here because of Steve," Emma said slowly.

"No. Yes, you're here because I thought it'd help Steve focus more, but I want you to be a part of this Emma. See if you like it. You're _good_. Remember—SHIELD offered you a position with us before you'd even graduated from college. You're not just any other nurse," Coulson said, his voice sincere. Emma pressed her lips together as she processed the information, and then she looked down at the floor.

"But I'm basically here as Steve's motivation," she said slowly. She lifted her eyes and looked up at Coulson. "And every mission he's assigned to as an Avenger, I'll be along. Again as his motivation."

"Emma, that's not how I meant it," Coulson protested. "I meant—"

"Well, that's what everyone thinks I'm here for, anyway," she interrupted. "The other nurses have been talking about it, and I overheard them. Agent Coulson, I really don't think I'm here for much more than—"

She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence. Out of nowhere, a loud crushing sound and a sharp jolt interrupted her words. Emma found herself slamming into the wall, dazed and confused, and she looked over at Coulson.

"That wasn't good," Coulson breathed. He lifted a hand to his ear. "Director Fury, what's happening?"

She watched his eyes widen and his face grow serious as he listened to a response. Silently, she waited, all thoughts of anger and irritation gone as she instantly realized that she didn't know where Steve was. He'd told her he'd find her after he was done taking care of all of his stuff, but she didn't know where he was now. Was he hurt? Was he ok? He was always ok—surely he had to be fine. Agent Coulson looked at her, his expression sober.

"Emma, are you ready to work in the field?" he asked crisply. "Head down to the maintenance level. Possible wounded Avengers in that area." Unable to even mumble anything out, Emma nodded, and she started to turn when Coulson grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him. He looked her straight in the eyes. "Emma. Show them you've got what it takes. Ok?"

"Ok," she stammered out, and then he let go of her arm, disappearing around the hall as he went to go carry out his own orders. As she started running to make her way down to the maintenance level, she played his words over in her mind. Little did she know, those nine words would be the last words he ever said to her.


End file.
